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DISSERTATIONS 



REGENERATE LIFE. 



DISSERTATIONS 

ON THE 

REGENERATE LIFE; 

IN HARMONY WITH 

THE THEOLOGICAL VIEWS 

OF 

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, 

THE UNDOUBTED MESSENGER OF 

/OUR LORD'S SECOND ADVENT. 
\/L 



EY JAMES ARBOUIN. ESQ. 



/f^'^ C °*«gS 



BOSTON :.. 

PUBLISHED BY T I S ^^/^'H^/ 

S. COLMAN, NEW YORK — A. PEAEODY, CINCINNATI. 
WILLIAM NEWBERY, LONDON. 

1841. 



i 



kS* 






Press of Manning & Hallworth, 
8, Congress St. ...Boston. 



LC 



Control Number 




tm P 96 027339 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The " Dissertations on the Regenerate Life," have gone 
through several editions in England, and one edition in this 
country, and have always been held in high regard as intro- 
ductory to the doctrines of the New Church. A desire has 
often been expressed that an edition might be published, in 
a form to subserve the interests of the Church, in this coun- 
try, at the present time, and this edition is offered to the 
Church, with a view of supplying this want. 

The author, Mr. Arbouin, as we learn in a brief biogra- 
phy by Rev. W. Mason, was of an ancient and highly re- 
spectable family of France. He was born at Lisbon, and 
received a liberal education at one of the public schools of * 
London. In addition to the knowledge of Greek and Latin 
which he there acquired, he became an accomplished French 
scholar, and had some knowledge of Italian. He was, at 
one time, a leading merchant in London, and, when in the 
tide of worldly prosperity, and from his distinguished tal- 
ents and mercantile knowledge, was usually fixed upon to 
form one of those deputations which frequently attend the 
minister of the day, upon matters connected with the trade 
and revenue of the country. 

To the man of business, he united the more elegant ac- 
complishments of the gentleman of refined taste and educa- 
tion, which, added to great liveliness of manner, brilliancy 
of imagination, and highly agreeable and polished behavior, 
attracted to his social board men in the higher classes of 
society, eminent alike for their knowledge and talent. It 



W ADVERTISEMENT. 

was while distinguished as "earth's happiest man," and 
surrounded by what is called, in the world's phraseology, 
"numerous and dear friends," that he was introduced 
to the theological works of Swedenborg. Subsequent to 
this, owing to the disasters of trade and commerce, he lost 
all of his large property. Thus bereft of all his outward 
possessions, with a calmness that surprised even himself, he 
submitted to the great change which had come upon him, 
bent himself to his painful situation, and, with a mind now 
deeply imbued with the truths of the New Church, rested 
with confidence upon the Divine Providence, and realized 
the truth of the words of the psalmist, "Cast thy burthen 
upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee." Some years 
after this, he was afflicted with a most painful disease, for 
the relief of which he several times underwent most severe 
operations. After one of these trials, he was obliged to lie 
on a sofa for several weeks. " That period," he remarked 
to Mr. Mason, "though one of intense bodily suffering, was 
the happiest of my whole life. Pain was no hindrance to 
the freedom and activity of my mind. My spirit, in which 
I seemed altogether to live and think, looked down, as it 
were, with pity, upon the poor, suffering, and prostrate 
body. During that period, I read through the six volumes 
of Swedenborg's Apocalypse Explained, with a perception 
of light, holy elevation, peace, and inward joy, which are 
perfectly indescribable." 

These trials, under Providence, had a very sensible influ- 
ence upon his whole life and character. Those who knew 
him in his natural and comparatively irreligious state of 
mind, from which he was so happily withdrawn by the pro- 
cess of regeneration, knew him to be subject to considerable 
haughtiness of character, and to frequent and most violent 



ADVERTISEMENT. V 

ebullitions of anger, or excited temper. But all these ten- 
dencies became marvellously subdued before the close of his 
life, and from the ashes of his former state arose those char- 
acteristics of Christian meekness and resignation by which 
he was latterly so much distinguished. Well and truly 
might he then exclaim, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, 
but now do I keep thy word : it is good for me that I have 
been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes: the law of 
thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and sil- 
ver." His decease took place on the 27th of November, 
1S22, in the eightieth year of his age. 

This little volume is the chief of his prose works, and it 
has always been regarded by the members of the New 
Church with especial favor. Among his poetry are said to 
be pieces which would have done credit to distinguished 
names. He published a selection of Aphorisms, with some 
original ones interspersed, which are now sold under the 
title of "Gems of Wisdom, Moral and Divine;" also, "The 
Beauties of Owen Feltham, selected from his Resolves," 
and three Sermons on the Lord's Prayer. 

He was an active contributor to the New Church period- 
icals. Of the Aurora, which was published in the years 
1799 to 1801, he was one of its editors, and contributed to 
its pages many valuable essays in prose and verse. Of the 
Intellectual Repository he was a regular correspondent, 
under the signatures of J. A , and J. V. T. 

Boston, September, 1841. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



I have "been induced, by the advice of many friends, 
to offer the following pages to the public; for although 
it is acknowledged that the progress of the Christian 
life is marked by an infinite diversity of states, there 
is, nevertheless, a prevailing feature of resemblance, 
that may render communications, from some degree 
of experience, both interesting and useful,- a hope is 
likewise entertained, that by giving them an exten- 
sive circulation, many may be led by these scattered 
rays to the fountain of light from whence they are 
derived. 

From a transient view only, of the very volumin- 
ous scientific and philosophical works of Sweden- 
borg, we see the vast attainments of a capacious 
mind; but when we contemplate his mission for the 
revelation of the internal sense of the Scriptures, 
we lose sight of him as an author, but consider him, 
agreeably to his own declaration, as the man " be- 
fore whom the Lord hath manifested Himself in 
person, and whom Pie hath filled with His spirit, to 
teach the doctrines of the New Church from Him. ?J# 
It forms no part of our present subject to combat the 
prejudices that many have formed against writings 
which they have never read, or the hasty conclusions 
of others who have stumbled at the threshold of the 
slightest investigation, happy in the conviction that 
the number of those is daily increasing, who, in the 
steadfastness of a sober mind, are perseveringly en- 
gaged in receiving instruction from this new and 
wonderful display of Gospel light, which, rising 
above the mist of doubt or misapprehension, has a 
direct tendency at once to reform and elevate the 
mind, and to meliorate the heart. 

* Vide Universal Theology, n. 779, 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 
On Truth 9 

On the Power of retaining Truth 12 

That all Worldly Possessions and Attainments must 
end in Disappointment, if Temporal be not joined 

with Spiritual Views. 14 

On the Expediency which is often experienced of a 
Straitness in Worldly Possessions and Enjoyments, 
for the Advancement of our Progress in Spiritual 

Life 19 

Concerning the Internal Word, as to its Advantages 

and Effects 23 

On the indispensable Necessity of acquiring a mild and 
gentle Spirit, as the genuine Test of the Operation 
of the Internal Word on the Affections and Life. ... 27 

Concerning the Divine Human 32 

On the Natural and Spiritual Mind 46 

On the Love of God and our Neighbor 48 

On Privations 51 

On Scientifics 53 

On Temporal Prosperity when subordinate to Eternal 

Views 55 

On a settled Dependence on, and Trust in, the Divine 

Providence 57 

On Charity 61 

On Order and Disorder 67 

On Self-Examination 71 



Vlli CONTENTS. 

On Prayer. 74 

On Regeneration 78 

Consolation offered to the dying Christian 90 

On Conversation 93 

On our Intercourse with the World 100 

On the Difficulty of attaining a settled and entire Trust 

in Providence 105 

On the Association of Angels 110 

The Correspondence of the Horse 114 

The Correspondence of the Vine 115 

The Correspondence of the Dove 117 

On the Lord's Prayer 119 

On the Life of Truth and the Life of Good. , 124 

On the Delight of Gratitude 126 

On the Delights of Constancy and the Delights of Va- 
riety 128 

On the Divine Providence 130 

Concerning the Delights and Progress of Religion.. . . 133 



DISSERTATIONS. 



ON TRUTH. 



Pilate said, What is truth*.... John xviii. 3S. 

This question, of most important and 
extensive meaning, can only be answered 
according to the feeble apprehensions of 
the human mind; truth in its origin belongs 
to the Deity alone. Truth is order, the 
perfection of form, or manifestation of 
good; therefore truth is the form of God, 
whose essence is goodness: this explana- 
tion may be illustrated from the natural 
world, where are corresponding forms that 
meet our apprehension. The natural sun 
is an image of what is' divine; its essence 
is heat, its manifestation is light, and these 
are together the constituents of order in the 
1 



10 ON TRUTH. 

natural world; the light reveals the opera- 
tion of the sun's heat in the progressive 
maturity of multiplied forms of use and 
beauty: — Gospel light, or spiritual truth, is 
the manifestation of good, which animates 
with divine heat; it is the development of 
successive order by which man approaches 
to the perfection of spiritual form, which, 
when animated by goodness, constitutes him 
an image of God. 

As a created being, I desire above all 
things to be acquainted with my Creator, 
to know His nature and attributes, also to 
know myself, and what I can do to gain 
His favor and love. Truth tells me what 
He is; divine truth therefore, which can 
alone discover to man the nature or quali- 
ties, as well as the will of God, is of infi- 
nitely more importance than all other truth, 
which in its infinite diversity of forms may 
still be traced to one source; truth then in 
its origin is the Word of God, which Word 
is the manifestation or form of God, by 
which He is described and seen; the Word 



ON TRUTH. ] 1 

in the beginning was with God, and was 
God. 

Truth, in its purity, can relate only to 
goodness; it is the servant or operating cause 
to perform its work, its guide to lead man to 
it, its herald to proclaim it, its bosom friend 
in which goodness delights, the touchstone 
by which its properties are tried, known, 
and brought to light. Truth is all that God 
speaks to man relative to what is divine, 
and to the way that man should walk in, 
and, in a subordinate sense, all that man 
speaks while he continues faithful to the 
Word of God. When man keeps the 
commandments he leads a life of truth; 
when he loves the commandments he leads 
a life of goodness; thus truth sent forth 
from goodness, which originates in GQd 
Himself, returns to its source; truth there- 
fore is the bright mirror, the manifested 
form, and the oracle of God. 



12 POWER OF RETAINING TRUTH. 



ON THE POWER OF RETAINING TRUTH. 

That a man of a confirmed evil life 
should hate divine truth, is from the very- 
nature of evil. Truth discovers to him 
his own hideous form. If from the mem- 
ory only he views it, he looks with oblique 
or half averted eyes; he considers truth as 
a tiresome monitor, that is always finding 
fault, and always imposing a task; and if 
the early impressions on his memory did 
not retain some indelible record of its pre- 
cepts, he would totally shut his mind against 
it. When remorse follows guilt, it is at 
first the offspring of fear; if however there 
is a degree of acknowledgment that what 
was done was wrong, accompanied with a 
degree of self condemnation, it is the first 
dawn of the mind's reform, and is a faint 
earnest of future obedience; when truth 
from the memory is confirmed in the un- 
derstanding out of regard to its documents, 
it is a further advancement in the admission 



POWER OF RETAINING TRUTH. 13 

of truth; in this stage, evil, when from 
strong propensities it recurs, is as often 
condemned, till affection, or the will, by 
insensible degrees, first espouses the cause 
of truth, and afterwards of goodness; after 
this, anxiety and pain never cease to ac- 
company the commission of evil, even in 
its slightest visible operations. As the will 
is more and more confirmed, and the affec- 
tions gather strength, evil is put away suc- 
cessively, and when it occasionally returns, 
the pain and anguish increase, till at last 
they grow intolerable; the will, in propor- 
tion as it acquires settled habits of good- 
ness, increases in the love of truth, and has 
more frequent returns of tranquillity and 
peace. 

Truth has no abiding place with man till 
it is received into the affections; it then 
operates in the life, and increases by new 
acquisitions without end: it is the food by 
which his spiritual life is sustained. — Re- 
markable instances have occurred of bril- 
liant attainments in truth for a time, when 
1* 



14 WORLDLY POSSESSIONS. 

only the love of fame, or gain, or of rule 
and pre-eminence, have presided in the will; 
but led on by such principles the acquisi- 
tions are flighty, and not solid. Let but 
attentive observation watch the event, and 
most egregious falsehoods will ere long 
present a chequered scene; the apparent 
leading truths will vanish at intervals like 
falling stars, or will expire like flowers cut 
off from their parent roots; the light of 
truths without the love of them is a tran- 
sient meteor, and their apparent flame a 
mere phosphorus: as the body without the 
soul is dead, so truth without a genuine af- 
fection is a mere carcass. 



THAT ALL WORLDLY POSSESSIONS AND 
ATTAINMENTS MUST END IN DISAPPOINT- 
MENT, IF TEMPORAL BE NOT JOINED TO 
SPIRITUAL VIEWS. 

That this is an incontrovertible truth, 
the daily experience of the young, and the 



WORLDLY POSSESSIONS. 15 

more mature and settled experience of the 
old, will continually confirm; and it can 
only be doubted by those minds that are 
lost even to insanity in temporal pursuits, 
who from an ardent love of the world 
would fain disprove what they every day 
lament, that they are dissappointed and un- 
happy. They have accustomed themselves 
to wear a mask till they cannot bear to go 
without it, and would endeavor to establish 
a lasting gratification in the opinion of oth- 
ers who may believe them possessed of 
what they daily sigh for. The very nature 
of the soul, which is immortal, can only 
be satisfied with immortal possessions; all 
things which begin and end with time are 
of no more estimation in the truly religious 
mind, than in the degree in which they are 
made subservient to eternal purposes; in 
themselves they are transient and perish- 
ing- 
Honors, riches, pre-eminence and power, 
may be all rendered subservient to the 
cause of religion and virtue, and in this new 



16 WORLDLY POSSESSIONS. 

creation of their uses, may be pronounced 
very good; but considered iri themselves, 
as they will come to nothing, so they are 
nothing. Ask the youth on whom religion 
and virtue have made some early impres- 
sions, in what estimation he holds his world- 
ly pleasures and gratifications, when he 
returns to his serious, silent, and monitory 
reflections, and he will candidly own that 
they are vain, delusive, and unprofitable; 
that if he can find only one friend in the 
world who so estimates them, one of his 
truest satisfactions would be a frequent and 
an uninterrupted intercourse with such a 
friend on more interesting and more elevat- 
ed subjects. In his riper years he will con- 
firm more and more the estimate made in his 
youth; his pursuit of virtuous attainments 
will become more steady and more ardent 
with his advancing years, till all his thoughts, 
words, and actions, will have eternal purpos- 
es in them, and will serve at once to render 
him more and more useful here, and to 
prepare him for a better state. 



WORLDLY POSSESSIONS. 17 

Virtue is eternal, and the mind that is 
soberly impressed with its dictates to the 
constant practice of them, lives in eternity 
even while in time, and will find time truly 
delightful in the degree in which it opens 
the prospect of eternity. The mind that 
would shut out this prospect separates it- 
self from religious virtue, and meets with 
incessant disappointment; it will not own 
the truth, because it does not love truth, 
for truth leads to virtue, and virtue to eter- 
nal delight. Should the aged advise, their 
counsel is disregarded, as having outlived 
their enjoyments, though the calm and so- 
ber satisfactions which virtue brings, will 
increase to the last moment of a man's life. 
Should the young advise, their observations 
are of no account; they are thought as yet 
unacquainted with the world. Thus is all 
admonition lost on the disciple of false- 
hood; and admonition slighted, is misery 
secured. Man was created for happiness, 
it is true, even in this world, but according 
to the laws of happiness; from a breach of 



18 WORLDLY POSSESSIONS. 

the divine commandment, or of the laws of 
happiness, which regard even the inmost 
thoughts and affections, are derived the in- 
numerable forms of human misery which 
we daily meet with. 

Those whose elevated affections, and 
whose upright intentions and conduct, open 
to them the cheering prospect of eternity, 
will find, by an humble dependence on the 
Divine Providence, the secret of soothing 
adversity, and of giving tenfold enjoyments 
to ; the swift career of time; while those 
who from aversion, or from a cold disre- 
gard to religious instruction and practice, 
shut out the prospect of eternity, will not 
only have an eternity to dread, but will of 
consequence inevitably deprive themselves, 
during their whole lives, of the true and 
heartfelt enjoyments of time. 



PRIVATION OF WORLDLY POSSESSIONS. 19 

ON THE EXPEDIENCY WHICH IS OFTEN 
EXPERIENCED, OF A STRAITNESS IN 
WORLDLY POSSESSIONS AND ENJOY- 
MENTS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF OUR 
PROGRESS IN SPIRITUAL LIFE. 

After the understanding has been en- 
lightened, and the affections have begun to 
receive new life from the divine Word, the 
will of man, which must at length be sub- 
dued, occasionally submits and occasionally 
prevails. While man continues under the 
influence of the Divine will, a new order 
takes place which is but faintly under- 
stood, and the old will often ensnares the 
understanding to condemn what it cannot 
comprehend. A privation of worldly pos- 
sessions and enjoyments, when a new-born 
charity has just begun to warm the heart, 
and the being forced into worldly difficul- 
ties, after having willingly parted with world- 
ly pursuits for the sake of the heavenly 
kingdom, appears a counteracting rather 
than a meliorating process, and we often 
lament in the bitterness of anguish, that we 



20 PRIVATION OF WORLDLY POSSESSIONS. 

cannot go to heaven by the way that we 
should choose: but during the infant stages 
of regeneration, while the first emotions of 
our charity are yet in a blended principle, 
had we ample means for its external opera- 
tion, are we sure that in the exercises of it 
there would be no triumph? Might we not 
often mistake the state of others, and by an 
ill-timed aid, impede the trials which others 
must undergo? Would there be no danger 
for our temperance at the table of luxury? 
for our humility in the courts of pride? and 
for our sincerity among flatterers? We 
know not whither great worldly means might 
lead us; and if in the course of Divine 
Providence we are deprived of them, it 
must assuredly be for our advantage here 
or hereafter. The dissipations of the world 
which we might be drawn into, when we 
proposed to avoid them, might deprive us 
of the benefit of interior trials and tempta- 
tions to which a retired and forlorn state 
from worldly privations will often form a 
basis. To learn to forgive injuries is more 



PRIVATION OF WORLDLY POSSESSIONS. ' 21 

difficult than to bestow bounties, and inju- 
ries will abound when adversity prevails; 
and when many false friends, from whom it 
is expedient that we should be separated, 
will fall off like autumnal leaves. To pre- 
fer dependence to possession, relying on 
the Lord alone in every effort that we make, 
is a state that we cannot arrive at till our 
usual supports are taken from us; it is not 
in a calm sea that the mariner's heart fails 
him, but in the trying tempest which defies 
his utmost skill. The world at present is 
in the very consummation of false principles 
and evils, and great are the advantages of 
often retiring from it, by self examination, 
by instruction from, and by sweet repose 
in, the Divine Word. 

The man of worldly prosperity, who 
from natural begins to acquire spiritual 
views, will often languish for a change in 
external things: he grows weary of worldly 
subjects that are void of life; he returns to 
the festive board, but sickens at the repast; 
his worldly friends and acquaintances are 



22 PRIVATION OF WORLDLY POSSESSIONS. 

again invited, but the inward affections 
mourn, while the external mind labors in 
vain to exert a cheerfulness which it cannot 
feel; his former delights now weigh like 
heavy burdens from which he knows not 
how to disengage himself, nor can he con- 
jecture by what means such long established 
connections are to be broken. An unex- 
pected misfortune takes place, which on a 
sudden changes the scene, and in the midst 
of surrounding difficulties his free spirit 
begins to breathe a new atmosphere, but 
scarce is he released from the bondage of 
Egypt, when he finds himself at the gate of 
the trying wilderness; in travelling through 
it, his fainting heart will often recoil, and 
he will at times be brought to the very brink 
of despair, when deprived at once of his 
worldly and spiritual comforts; but let him 
strive to possess his soul in patience and 
humble dependence on the Lord, who will 
in the hour of his greatest need give him 
manna from heaven, and water from the 
rock; he will find both in the Word of 



CONCERNING THE INTERNAL WORD. 23 

Life, and enjoy that fit measure of worldly 
comforts which the Lord only knows, and 
will not fail to provide, till he arrive at the 
land that floweth with milk and honey, his 
eternal abode in the heavens, where his 
tears will be turned into joy, and all his 
cares into the delightful rest of heavenly 
uses for ever. 



CONCERNING THE INTERNAL WORD, AS TO 
ITS ADVANTAGES AND EFFECTS. 

When the affections as well as the un- 
derstanding are introduced to the internal 
Word at this day revealed, and the life cor- 
responds to its dictates, man becomes an 
inhabitant of the heavenly kingdom as to 
his spirit, and is a mere sojourner on earth, 
which like the letter of the Word supplies 
him with corresponding forms of his heav- 
enly inheritance; in contemplating the or- 
der and beauty of the heavenly kingdom 



24 CONCERNING THE INTERNAL WORD. 

which the messenger of the new dispensa- 
tion has been allowed to visit, that he might 
describe them, he views the surpassing de- 
light of eternity when compared with time, 
and of infinitude when compared with space. 
A world where the spiritual form, the com- 
panion of a free spirit, can roam at large, 
and with a single desire be transported from 
orb to orb without the confinement of space, 
and possessing in its own mind the heaven 
which it inhabits. It is a heartfelt privi- 
lege, while in the present world, to enjoy 
the certainty of soon leaving it; friends and 
acquaintances daily fall around us, death 
carries on an unrelenting and exterminating 
warfare upon our perishable material forms, 
and a tranquil delight is perceived in every 
token of their decay, since death is no 
more than the throwing off a material cov- 
ering, intended and provided only for the 
first budding forth of our existence, and 
even this is capable of real delights when 
fed from the living fountain. By the inter- 
nal Word we are presented with a more 



CONCERNING THE INTERNAL WORD. 25 

sublime view of the infinite love of the 
Deity, and of the more refined operations 
of charity; of the true nature of genuine 
faith, which when disunited from charity, 
is a mere name; — the Trinity comprised in 
the manifested Savior, the Jehovah that 
was to appear on earth, has ceased to dis- 
tract the mind by human inventions, which 
have by a false conception of three distinct 
persons confused the understanding, and, in 
a cloud of inconceivable difficulties, have 
for centuries estranged the church from 
God. 

By a more clear and enlarged idea of the 
Deity we are brought nearer to Him; our 
worship is more animated, our love be- 
comes more ardent, and from the love of 
the Supreme Being," our charity will be- 
come more active and extensive, and our 
self examination more watchful and more 
refined. The satisfaction of doing good 
which we are led to by numberless means, 
while our constant attention is to shun evil, 

will be renewed with every rising sun; the 

2 * 



26 CONCERNING THE INTERNAL WORD. 

hours of retirement will be sweetened with 
heavenly contemplation, and the busy hours 
of life, though oppressed with many uncon- 
genialities, will be patiently sustained; ev- 
ery thing imparts a blessing, when all things 
have their use, and all things have their 
use when God is in all our thoughts; — the 
tendency of these thoughts in which God 
is, is always to our neighbor's good, either 
nearly or remotely: anxieties which darken, 
and temptations which excite despondency, 
will ultimately confirm our dependence on 
Divine Providence; this will gradually ena- 
ble us to rise above the trials which temp- 
tations bring, till our inward peace becomes 
more and more permanent. The Lord's 
words, which are spirit and life, become a 
dead letter, when the mind by yielding too 
much to worldly principles becomes rest- 
less and untranquil; when the Lord is in 
the holy temple of our renewed affections, 
thoughts, and inmost desires, all the earth 
will keep silence before him, and we shall 
be directed on our way. 



NECESSITY OF GENTLENESS. 27 



ON THE INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF 
ACQUIRING A MILD AND GENTLE SPIRIT, 
AS THE GENUINE TEST OF THE OPERA- 
TION OF THE INTERNAL WORD ON THE 
AFFECTIONS AND LIFE. 

In the writings of Emanuel Svvedenborg 
we find the following interesting passages, 
to which very many more might be added 
to the same purpose. 

Truth from good is soft and gentle, 
falsehood from evil is hard and fierce, hence 
the origin of hard and bitter speeches. — Jl. 
C. 6359. 

Every natural affection as it ascends to- 
wards interior principles, or towards 
heaven, becomes milder, and at length 
is changed into a heavenly affection. — Jl. 
C. 3909. 

As sound which is on high, where the 
atmosphere is more pure, is tacit, but when 
it descends to the inferior or more dense 
atmosphere is louder and more sonorous, 
so divine truth and divine good are in their 
elevated state pacific, and altogether undis- 



28 NECESSITY OF GENTLENESS. 

turbed; but when they fall to lower degrees 
grow unpacific, and at length tumultuous. — 
A. C. 8823. 

Goodness of disposition manifests itself 
by gentleness and sweetness; by gentleness 
in that it is afraid to do hurt, and by sweet- 
ness in that it loves to do good. — Earths 
in the Universe, 50. 

The life of our Lord on earth was the 
most perfect pattern of mildness and of 
gentleness. When His disciples would 
have brought down fire from heaven to con- 
sume their adversaries, He mildly rebuked 
them, saying, "Ye know not what spirit ye 
are of." When they seemed disposed to 
desert Him, He made this affectionate ap- 
peal to them, "Will ye also go away?" 
When Peter had thrice denied Him, "He 
looked on him, and Peter remembered His 
words." Under the pangs of crucifixion 
He prayed for His murderers with His 
dying breath. 

The spirit of violence, of impatience, 
of impetuosity, of pre-eminence, of the 



NECESSITY OF GENTLENESS. 29 

love of dominion from the love of self, are 
the very spirit of Antichrist, whatever soft- 
er name may be given it by insidious evil 
spirits; zeal is the apology they constantly 
supply for the disorder they unceasingly 
create; this false and intemperate zeal in- 
duced Peter to draw his sword. John had 
not less zeal, who lay on his Savior's bo- 
som, and whose mild and persevering en- 
deavor was to win men to his love. It is 
the common practice of intemperate zeal, 
to sour the minds of men by vociferous and 
violent argument: this will often prevent 
their seeing truth, as much as their con- 
stantly presenting it in battle array will 
prevent the loving and obeying it; so to 
conduct ourselves as to endeavor to meet 
the apprehension of others, and to court it 
by a genuine display of .the mild and order- 
ly operation of truth on ourselves, is the 
way of wisdom ; — in offering truth we should 
shew the good it has led to in ourselves to 
invite others to seek the same good. Truth 
led on by worldly principles is loud, impe- 



30 NECESSITY OF GENTLENESS. 

rious, impatient, self applauding and trium- 
phant; conducted by heavenly principles is 
candid, mild, patient, yielding, accommo- 
dating, engaging, yet sincere and steadfast. 
The man in heavenly principles will travel 
out of his way to bring the wanderer home, 
and if he cannot awaken his understanding, 
will gradually strive to impress his heart. 
In the well prepared mind, the influx of 
heavenly truth is tranquil as the silent dew 
softly descending into a fleece of wool. 

Do the disciples of the new dispensation 
meet for the delight of conversing on the 
sublime truths of the eternal Word, and do 
they suffer disputation and discordance to 
prevail? This would be to shut out the 
sun's rays instead of showing their beauty 
in a prism. Minds not in unison, cannot 
dwell together upon heavenly truth: it would 
be a concert without harmony. The love 
of truth cannot abide with any form of the 
self-seeking principle. 

Our surest remedy against a spirit of 
strife and contention will be found, in our 



NECESSITY OF GENTLENESS. ol 

constant prayer for strength to resist all 
disorderly tendency of the mind and its 
affections; to watch the first ebullition of 
anger, of restlessness, and of anxiety; and 
on such occasions, to turn the thoughts to 
heavenly things; every day to go forth with 
an endeavor to be calm, moderate, and 
temperate; to reflect more, and to speak 
less; to dwell much on the truths of the 
living Word, and to look more and more 
to the Lord. Such endeavors will doubt- 
less be ultimately crowned with tranquillity 
and peace. 



CONCERNING 

THE DIVINE HUMAN. 



Doubtless this divine subject will be 
the delightful contemplation of angels to all 
eternity; and the feeble apprehensions which 
our most humble and purest interior affec- 
tions will be enabled to acquire during our 
abode on earth, will prove but as the lisp- 
ings of infancy. The thoughts which are 
here ventured to be offered may, neverthe- 
less, be acceptable to the candid and conge- 
nial minds of those to whom such subjects 
are at all times interesting, however con- 
fessedly obscured in shade. 

SECTION I. 

% 
That the Lord made His humanity Di- 
vine, means, in a general sense, that the 
Lord through progressive stages of putting 
off the maternal human, by combats and 
victories obtained, advanced from a state of 



THE DIVINE HUMAN. 83 

infancy through degrees of intelligence and 
wisdom to the essential Divine; He thus 
glorified His humanity, which He fully glo- 
rified by the last temptation of the cross. 
In the veil which He assumed it is our 
great privilege to contemplate Him through 
advancing stages of our regeneration, till, 
by imitative degrees of the divine progress, 
we are enabled to throw off obstructing 
imperfections from evils and false princi- 
ples, and by divine influx from our glorified 
Lord, from first principles to ultimates, to 
be again brought into conjunction with 
Him. 

When the affection of truth humbly 
seeks for illustration, we shall find it in the 
living Word, in the internal sense of which 
the Lord condescends at this day to mani- 
fest Himself in glory, or in His glorified 
human; in the same Word we contemplate 
Him in the maternal infirm human, and 
may, by the gradual renewing of our minds, 
become recipients of His divine influx, 
from first principles to ultimates; for as 
3 



34 THE DIVINE HUMAN. 

the literal Word is the basis and continent 
of the internal sense, so in the one only- 
manifested Lord dwells the fulness of the 
Godhead bodily. Therefore as the Psalm- 
ist says, "is any one afflicted, let him pray" 
to that merciful Savior who passed through 
the deepest trial of human sufferings. "Is 
he merry, (or in gladness of heart,) let him 
sing psalms," let him address his inmost 
thankfulness to his glorified Redeemer, the 
eternal and living fountain of all beatitude. 
We are informed by Swedenborg, "that 
in the time of the most ancient church, 
there was no written Word, for the men of 
that church had the Word inscribed on 
their hearts, inasmuch as the Lord taught 
them immediately through heaven what was 
good, and thereby what was true, and gave 
them to perceive each from a principle of 
love and charity, and to know from revela- 
tion. The very essential Word to them 
was the Lord. The succeeding church, 
which was spiritual, had a written Word, 
as well historical as prophetical, and in the 



THE DIVINE HUMAN. 35 

beginning no other Word than what was 
collected from the most ancient people. — 
A. R. 3432. 

Thus it opens to the mind's view, that 
when the principle of heavenly love was on 
the decline among the human race, when 
the Divine Influence was weakened in its 
effect, the Divine Teaching took a differ- 
ent form: when affection, which is as it 
were the soul of truth, was grown weak, 
it was necessary to give to truth a perma- 
nent body, or fixedness, that the mind might 
not lose sight of the object of its worship, 
and that the light of truth might not depend 
on the fluct jg state of the affections, 
but take jfa, -outward form of an inward and 
ete Toe ^cument. So soon therefore as 
fe]} neavenly church had lost its love, the 
promise of a Messiah gave to faith its per- 
manency, which was in less or greater 
illumination, according to the states of the 
men of the ancient church; a faithful obe- 
dience to the divine commandments was 
continually excited among them; first by 



36 THE DIVINE HUMAN. 

truths retained from the heavenly church, 
and afterwards by a written Word. In the 
primeval state of the heavenly church, the 
Divine Human passing through the heav- 
ens, which were one, could influence the 
heavenly, spiritual, and natural mind, which 
like the heavens were one, and were acted 
upon in like manner from highest to lowest 
principles, or from the centre to the cir- 
cumference. This church was in the 
province of the heart, and in exact corres- 
pondence with the innocence of infancy, 
governed by a spirit of love. But the in- 
fant must grow, and its internal mental 
powers be developed; in his progress to 
adolescence the youth question, compares, 
and examines, those lessons wine* i were 
taught during the innocence of his love, a b 
fancies in the opening powers of his mind, 
a superior and independent state; in like 
manner the posterity of the most ancient 
church, looking more to their own under- 
standings than to the fountain of all wis- 
dom, began to despise Divine communica- 



THE DIVINE HUMAN. 37 

tions, and by degrees fancied themselves 
gods. Having thus set up the pride of 
self-intelligence, and worshiping that which 
in its order was a true image of the Deity, 
they rendered it, in its perverted state, the 
foundation of succeeding idolatries; since 
to make an idol of self-intelligence is not 
less insane than the external worship of an 
inanimate stock or stone. 

To the ancient or spiritual church, a third 
church, which was the Israelitish or repre- 
sentative church, succeeded, which was a 
church of mere representatives, as consist- 
ing of types and ceremonies, in which were 
overlooked the spiritual things represented 
or signified. Thus the pride of self-intel- 
ligence, nurtured by the self-love of man, 
falls into degrees of life more and more 
remote, or into dense and denser shades. 
The recipiency of the human mind can only 
be adequate to its state; those command- 
ments which were engraved on the hearts 
of the men of the heavenly church, and 
which were retained in the understanding 
3* 



38 THE DIVINE HUMAN. 

and affectionate minds of the men of the 
spiritual church, were delivered by the hand 
of Jehovah Himself on tables of stone to 
the Israelitish church, that they might re- 
main in indelible characters on the memory, 
might at once confirm their divine authori- 
ty, and discover the very low state of re- 
cipiency to which man had fallen. 

SECTION II. 

The Word which is divine, and which 
is the Divine Human, is ever invariably 
the same, but its manifestation has varied 
its form in every age, according to the 
state of human minds. Divine truth was 
well nigh lost to the human apprehension 
in external rites and ceremonies, when our 
Lord condescended to manifest himself in 
the flesh; he veiled himself in the human 
form, that he might become a living pre- 
cept, the bright and perfect example of 
his own documents, that he might restore 
his perverted Word, fulfil the prophecies, 
and in his clouded omnipotence might not 



THE DIVINE HUMAN. o9 

annihilate, but consign to regions of dark- 
ness those infernal and active spirits, who, 
after gaining possession of men's minds, 
had began to possess their bodies. Our 
Lord, by being clothed with human in- 
firmities, was assailable by the hells, till 
the maternal human was progressively ex- 
pelled by combats and victories obtained, 
and till divine truth again reassumed its 
glory unveiled. 

The Lord, by manifesting himself in the 
flesh, became constantly visible and acces- 
sible, like the Word in the letter; His 
disciples, notwithstanding, who had so 
many opportunities of resorting to Him, 
and of hearing His divine instructions, had 
but a very obscure and feeble apprehension 
of His Divinity; while they resorted to 
Him as man, they could not fully compre- 
hend Him as God; our Lord therefore ac- 
quainted them of the necessity, when His 
work should be accomplished, of with- 
drawing Himself from their sight, that His 
divine spirit might have a more effectual 



40 THE DIVINE HUMAN. 

operation. "If I go not away, the Com- 
forter cannot come." They were favored, 
at the transfiguration, with an anticipated 
view of the Lord in glory, that their minds 
might be duly impressed, and, in a more 
elevated state, be prepared to receive the 
influence of divine truth glorified. Our 
Lord, during His abode on earth, had 
given new r spirit and new life to the Word 
by the gospel, but only a few scattered 
rays of its internal sense could find a re- 
cipiency in human minds. Though the 
prophecies were fulfilled, and the resurrec- 
tion realized, still the hovering cloud hung 
upon the sacred text. The nature of the 
Divine Trinity, under the names of Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost, and comprised io 
Himself, the one only manifested Lord, 
the Almighty Jehovah in a human form, 
an immediate resurrection, and the nature 
and order of the spiritual world, were still 
left in the veil of mystery. Our Lord's 
second advent was to reveal many things 
which he could not, at his first advent. 



THE DIVINE HUMAN. 41 

disclose to his disciples; their minds were 
slow to conceive a resurrection in a spirit- 
ual body, a heaven without pre-eminence, 
where to be little is to be great, and to be 
most humble to be most elevated. It was 
necessary to leave them in the belief that 
the material body would rise from the 
grave, to give reality to the resurrection; 
and that the visible world would be de- 
stroyed, to fix in their minds an impression 
of a general future judgment. 

But the Lord is now come in the clouds 
of heaven, in glory, or in the internal sense 
of the literal Word, not to destroy but to 
save this visible world, and by gradual, but 
sure progression, by the establishment of 
peace and righteousness in harmony with 
the prophecies, to unite it forever with the 
heavens. 

The sensual principle, which was as- 
sumed by a miraculous birth in the weak- 
ness of the maternal human, was raised in 
power, having in the course of its purify- 
ing process resisted and overcome the 



42 THE DIVINE HUMAN. 

hells; the disciple of His Lord can no 
longer be the slave of that principle, which 
has been lifted up by the Lord of life, se- 
cured against a host of enemies, and brought 
to be the foundation or lowest existing ba 
sis of the eternal order of the heavens. 

SECTION III. 






The regular series of the regenerating 
process must terminate in a restoration of 
that image and likeness which have been 
well nigh obliterated; and is from faith to 
obedience, and from obedience to love. 
Man must believe at heart in Jehovah as 
manifested in the flesh, till, by shunning 
evils, that faith is vivified. 

Under the first impressions of truth he 
will go with the Lord to the temple, and 
for a while will hold disputation with the 
doctors or the learned, he will contend 
earnestly for truth; in a more advanced 
stage, he will accompany his Lord to the 
marriage, when goodness and truth unite* 



THE DIVINE HUMAN. 43 

and will perceive in himself the water 
turned into wine; his truth will become 
spiritualized, and will unite with goodness: 
in the further progress of that union, he 
will be enabled successively to surmount 
his evil propensities, till they are at length 
nailed to the cross with his crucified Re- 
deemer; he will arise to newness of life, 
till truth is glorified in him; he will then be 
fitted to receive the Lord in His second 
advent, and from being the disciple of His 
truth, will become the disciple of His love. 
The Saviour must be born in us as He 
was in the world; must put off in us, by 
fighting for us against our spiritual enemies, 
those evils which He put off with the ma- 
ternal human; must be crucified in us to 
the death or quiescence of our former life; 
must resuscitate in divine truth in us, and 
establish His kingdom of love in us, before 
we can be fitted for His heavenly kingdom, 
and before the incarnation of the Divine 
Human can produce in us its triumphant 
and eternally saving effects. Thus shall 



44 THE DIVINE HUMAN. 

we recover the image and likeness of God, 
in Jesus Christ, which can never more be 
effaced; the external, though distinct in 
degree, will be united with the internal in 
corresponding harmony, and the church 
immortal, which now descends from heav- 
en, will establish its dominion with us 
forever. 

Many whom curiosity may incite to 
contemplate the wonders of the new dis- 
pensation, which is gradually diffusing its 
light through the world, may, for a while, 
gladly receive the testimony in the imagi- 
native delights of the natural mind, but 
none can have any part or lot in the bene- 
fits of the second advent, who do not un- 
dergo the process of the first. We must 
die to self before we can have life in the 
Lord; we must have genuine truth before 
we can have heavenly love. The Lord is 
the way, the truth, and the life, and every 
one who would participate the life must 
with heartfelt humiliation apply to the man- 
ifested Jehovah as the only way which can 



THE DIVINE HUMAN. 



45 



introduce the sincere penitent to that di- 
vine truth which alone can enlighten, and 
to that divine love which in its bosom con- 
tains eternal felicity. 



ON 



THE NATURAL AND SPIRIT- 
UAL MIND. 



As the spiritual mind grows into matur- 
er form, it contemplates the pursuits of 
men in the natural mind as the wanderings 
of insanity, which give fancied forms to 
fleeting shadows; since every thing which 
is of a transient nature they view as perma- 
nent, and every thing which is of a spiritu- 
al and permanent nature as visionary; thus 
bodily delights, which are constantly weak- 
ening, are speculated upon and fostered as 
though they were to last forever; power 
and riches, honor and fame, which time 
mocks, and death extinguishes, employ all 
the energies of the human mind, while it 
remains unregenerate. 

That veneration for the Supreme Being, 



THE NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL MIND. 47 

which all His works without us as well as 
within us should excite, giving birth to a 
benevolence that encircles all mankind, the 
ambitious and restless cannot feel, since 
their ruling purpose is to make themselves 
great and mighty by thinking little of the 
Supreme Power, and by seeking to increase 
their own enjoyments instead of contribut- 
ing to the happiness of their neighbor. In 
the regeneration, every natural joy, of 
however fair, plausible, and pleasing a com- 
plexion, must fade to give birth to a spirit- 
ual root, which will re-animate the natural 
joy, if it be innocent, and give it a perma- 
nent nature by uniting it with eternal uses. 
As regeneration advances, desolations and 
supports become more frequent, the former 
are often attended with sad despondency, 
and are shortened as they become more 
acute; the supports which are marked with 
particular providences, are frequently also 
of short duration; in the desolations we 
perceive our own nothingness, and in the 
supports the Lord's power. Were the 



48 LOVE OF GOD AND OUR NEIGHBOR. 

supports to last, we might fancy ourselves 
something; and were the desolations to 
last, the Lord's power would disappear, 
leaving us apparently to perish. In propor- 
tion as we acquire a habit of feeling, as 
well as viewing ourselves as nothing, and 
the Lord as all in all, our states are more 
and more perfected. 



ON THE LOVE OF GOD AND OUR NEIGHBOR. 

If we love God we shall love His laws 
and dispensations, we shall love not only 
His gifts, but His chidings also, which are 
His veriest gifts. If our self-will were not 
often checked, controlled, and forced by a 
strong hand from its course, it would re- 
main forever in a perverted state; our pur- 
suits, our attachments, our hopes, our fears, 
our triumphs, and our very sighs, must all 
acquire a new order, that they may be 
rectified. The tenor of the Christian's life, 



LOVE OF GOD AND OUR NEIGHBOR. 49 

notwithstanding occasional inward trials and 
outward afflictions, is sweetened with in- 
tervals of peace; he enjoys a simplicity of 
heart, a serenity of conscience, an equal- 
ity of temper, a lively confidence, an hum- 
ble resignation. To love God is to love 
goodness in every form and in every de- 
gree, and to seek to promote it by every 
possible means, and to shun evils of every 
kind, as obstacles to its progress. To 
love our neighbor is to seek his well-being 
and happiness, more especially by promot- 
ing his spiritual welfare, by good counsel, 
and by kindness, according to his state; 
we should travel lightly and pleasantly with 
him, and not tire him by leaning too heav- 
ily upon him with our own anxieties. By 
bearing our own burthens patiently, and by 
endeavoring to relieve those of others, is 
the way gradually to wax strong in the 
Lord, to find His yoke easy, and His bur- 
then light. In the most ancient church, 
charity was classed into a variety of dis- 
tinctions, and exercised accordingly: at 



50 LOVE OF GOD AND OUR NEIGHBOR. 

this day we seem to understand very little 
of its most general operations; the true 
love of our neighbor is beneficent, disin- 
terested, forgiving, compassionate, seeking 
to set the purposes right by good counsel 
and by kindness, finding its own enjoyment 
in the happiness which it promotes. To 
love God truly, we must love the hand 
that gives, that takes away, that oppresses, 
that relieves, that elevates, and that con- 
founds. To love our neighbor truly, we 
must love him with all his faults, without 
loving his faults; we must take him as he 
is, and increase our love as he increases in 
goodness; if he is capable of listening to 
counsel, we must advise for the best; if he 
is abandoned, we must pray for him, and 
never forget the general law of charity, 
which extends to all mankind. 



ON PRIVATIONS. 



We are never so much disposed to have 
consideration for others, as when we im- 
pose on ourselves voluntary privations, and 
never so little, as when we extend our self 
indulgences, though, to many, the reverse 
of this may seem to be the case. The 
reason is, that by restraining our own en- 
joyments of the sensual kind, we weaken 
the power of self-love, which, the more it 
prevails, the more it weakens the power of 
neighborly love. The keeping within due 
bounds our sensual gratifications, will al- 
ways prov.e the surest means of heightening 
our rational ones, and the crown of all 
these is charity, in its disinterested and 
elevated purposes of adding to the happi- 
ness of our neighbor. The man whose 
sensual and degraded delight is the accu- 
mulation of wealth, will think very little 
sufficient for those who want, which he 



52 ON PRIVATIONS. 

will deal out with a very sparing hand; and 
the voluptuary would, at any price of in- 
convenience to others, bring the pleasures 
of life, many of them falsely so called, into 
his own net; he would beggar his family 
to increase his gratifications, which we have 
daily proofs of; but he, who, amidst the 
natural enjoyments of time, can contem- 
plate an eternity to succeed, and will direct 
his thoughts and affections to worthy ob- 
jects, and to that fitness for a future state 
which is his unalienable inheritance, will 
consider the love of God in the order 
which His precepts enforce, and the love 
of his neighbor in all the relative duties, as 
the highest attainment of an immortal be- 
ing, and will be content with little in his 
journey to a happier country. 



ON SCIENTIFICS. 



General and common scientifics, ac- 
quired in early life, and progressively im- 
proved, are the vessels which are recipient 
of spiritual things, and become vivified and 
enlightened by spiritual truths, in the de- 
gree that these are illustrated and warmed 
by charity. Heavenly and spiritual truths, 
when opened and expanded by the genuine 
affection of truth, will flow into scientifics, 
and discover innumerable beautiful corres- 
pondences in lucid order, which, like so 
many mirrors, will reflect divine things. 
But let not the man of science attempt to 
open and unlock, by means of natural ex- 
ternal knowledge, the fountain of wisdom 
in the Divine Word, for this is contrary 
to order, and the ineffectual exertions of 
the self-will of man will soon be manifest- 
ed in such presuming and fruitless labor. 



54 ON SCIENTIFICS. 

Such activities will soon betray the pride 
of intellectual attainment darkened by the 
mist of error: self will be the centre of 
manifold exertions to excite an acknow- 
ledged superiority, where humility should 
prevail; there will be a desire of rule 
blended with an apparent desire of good, 
and the thoughts will become perverted, 
instead of being continually engaged in a 
devout research after the treasures of the 
Divine Word; the mind will speculate on 
the curious devices of novelty, of inven- 
tions that may excite wonder and admira- 
tion, and of cold and lifeless investigations. 
The mind, thus fettered by scientifics, 
cannot rise, but, like a flying-fish, instant- 
ly drops from the purer element, where it 
had in vain expanded its feeble wings. 



TEMPORAL PROSPERITY, 

WHEN SUBORDINATE TO ETERNAL VIEWS. 



It sometimes happens, in the course of 
Divine Providence, that when the mind of 
man, in the commencement of his regen- 
eration, begins to be open to eternal views, 
his worldly supports are taken from him, 
sometimes gradually, sometimes suddenly, 
and with apparent violence, that he may 
learn to look upwards, and to find his sup- 
port in the Lord alone; to disentangle his 
affections from the world, and to break all 
their bonds and affinities. This, at first, 
proves a severe trial to the new convert, 
who will often shrink during his passage 
through the wilderness, and will look back 
with regret to the sensual delights of Egyp- 
tian bondage. During this state, were the 
days of his worldly prosperity to return, 



56 TEMPORAL PROSPERITY. 

his worldly affections, which are to be sub- 
dued, would return with them; he is there- 
fore kept in straitnesses of various kinds. 
Still worldly means are allowed for neces- 
sities, in various unexpected forms; a 
stranger hand will sometimes, like the 
raven, bring him food; he will, at times, 
discover the Divine Providence that brings 
him manna from heaven for his mental sup- 
port, which he will loathe at times, and 
sigh for quails. When he falls into com- 
pany with worldly minds, he is sometimes 
shocked and disappointed, and sometimes 
won over to his former delights; but in 
proportion as his spiritual mind is strength- 
ened by privations, outward trials, and 
inward temptations, he blends with the 
world with less danger, can treat its levi- 
ties and amusements which are not crim- 
inal, as children's play, reserving to him- 
self his hidden satisfactions, which he feeds 
on, and ventures to impart only at prudent 
intervals. A ray of worldly prosperity, 
which would before have dimmed the light 



DEPENDENCE ON PROVIDENCE. 57 

of his spiritual mind, and darkened its 
views, may now serve to make them more 
luminous, by removing the shade of world- 
ly cares and anxieties, from which the free 
spirit disencumbered takes a wider range; 
the elevated affections are at length instinct- 
ively taught, as is fabled of the bird of 
paradise, to live on the wing; there is no 
danger of their settling on earth. The di- 
vine favors, in the spiritual or natural form, 
are like grapes and figs from the promised 
land, and the triumphs of the humble re- 
generate mind are those of gratitude and 
tears. 



ON A SETTLED DEPENDENCE ON, AND 
TRUST IN, DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 

A dependence on the Divine Provi- 
dence, like every other attainment in the 
regenerate life, w T ill be experienced to be 
gradual, and variable at intervals. The 

black clouds that surround us, and the new 
5 



58 DEPENDENCE ON PROVIDENCE. 

forms of difficulty and desolation by which 
we are tried, will, in the early stages, oc- 
casion sad despondency, and, sometimes, 
absolute despair; but by degrees we dis- 
cover the hand that lifts us up, that protects 
us, and enables us again and again to sur- 
mount the overwhelming billows, till at 
length we find ourselves secure in the 
Divine Word, our spiritual life-boat, which 
the threatening waves cannot overset. 
Were Providence to raise us up, before 
by repeated desolations we were sufficient- 
ly humbled, we should most assuredly tri- 
umph, and the natural mind, which is to be 
subdued, would bear rule and prevent that 
self-humiliation which is the true test of 
our advancing in the spiritual life. As our 
trust in the Divine Providence increases, 
circumstances of every kind will occasion 
our immediately looking up to the Lord; 
for the smallest instance of prosperity we 
shall immediately give thanks; for what is 
adverse, our prayers will be as instantly 
made that we may take a right course, and 



DEPENDENCE ON PROVIDENCE. 59 

that we may, in due time, surmount the 
danger or difficulty. Providence, that was 
particularly visible in the progress of our 
various privations, will be equally so in the 
wonderful and unsuspected means of our 
support; and when all these combining 
circumstances have been reiterated to the 
observation of the true penitent, a more 
refined observation will ensue, and a de- 
light in the course the Lord takes with us, 
which for the world we would not wish to 
alter: the affections, elevated and purified, 
instead of calling on the reflecting intellect 
for support, and for a repetition of its for- 
mer instructions, will urge it to witness those 
clearer views which affection alone can un- 
fold, till the understanding, from being the 
preceptor, becomes the pupil of the recti- 
fied will, and the reason confirms what the 
heart, in its more copious and, refined re- 
ception of heavenly influx, dictates. A 
mature trust in the Lord can only exist in 
the degree in which self dependence sub- 



60 DEPENDENCE ON PROVIDENCE. 

sides; and this can only subside by priva- 
tions and by repeated trials, by which the 
pure in heart are gradually taught in all 
things to see God. 



ON CHARITY. 



The good offices of charity, in their 
minute and extensive operations, are known 
to the Lord alone, and it is only in pro- 
portion as selfish and worldly loves are 
subdued, that we are open to the influence 
of this divine emanation from the Lord, 
and can become acquainted with this ce- 
lestial science. 

To find our happiness in promoting the 
happiness of others, is a striking contrast 
to the seeking our happiness in the subser- 
viency of others : the former disposition 
engenders humility, brotherly kindness, 
tenderness, and compassion, a perpetual 
desire in forgiving injuries, to rectify the 
deformed and erring propensities of the 
human mind, to hold out to all the distinc- 
tions between false happiness and the true, 
and mildly to invite and persuade to the 
best choice; while to seek our happiness 
5* 



62 ON CHARITY. 

in the subserviency of others, engenders 
pride, haughtiness, discontent, dissatisfac- 
tion, and even cruelty. Genuine charity, 
in its operations, is an image of the mira- 
cles which our Lord performed on earth: 
it gives light to the blind who are in the 
darkness of error; it opens the deaf ear 
to attend to divine things; it helps the 
feeble, and assists the lame to walk; it 
raises those who are dead in worldly and 
selfish love to the light of heaven: unbe- 
lievers alone, who slight its report and turn 
from its aid, lose all the benefit of that 
instrumentality which the Lord has appoint- 
ed for it. Charity gives a new current to 
that sensibility, which, in early life, some 
are so prone to idolize, not aware that its 
refinements are often the secret ministers 
of self-love. Instead of being tender for 
itself, and subtle in the contrivance of its 
own gratifications, this heaven-born sensi- 
bility is tender for others, cautious not to 
provoke, unwilling to give offence, mild in 
persuasion, and patient in bearing with the 



ON CHARITY. 63 

prejudices, gross views, and sensations of 
the natural mind. If it cannot accomplish 
any good purpose on perverted minds, it 
retires, and waits a better opportunity; to 
the mind that is receptive, it opens its 
treasures, not to dazzle but to invite, by 
communicating its general and common 
good things at first, and reserving its pearls 
and its gold for the last. 



Charity does not require of us to judge 
so favorably of others as to see things 
through a false medium, and to call evil 
good; for genuine charity and truth are 
ever in union, and in the degree in which 
charity is derived from, and elevated to, 
the supreme love of the Lord, the spirit- 
ual perception becomes clearer, and is more 
free from the clouds either of prejudice or 
partiality. It is as little the office of char- 
ity to flatter as to offend; but to encourage 
with the warmth of approbation what is 
good, and calmly, but firmly, to oppose 



64 ON CHARITY. 

what is evil, is consistent with the charac- 
ter of the most upright benevolence. A- 
mong the spiritual acquaintances that we 
may make, we shall sometimes find our- 
selves much disappointed, and sometimes 
deeply deceived, and as the spiritual affec- 
tions will grow stronger towards every 
apparent degree of increasing goodness in 
our neighbor, so will they weaken at its 
apparent decline, for we can only judge by 
appearances in the most righteous human 
judgment, since the Lord alone can know 
the thoughts and the most secret intentions 
of the heart. Suppose, then, a friend, to 
whom our attachment has been fixed for 
years, should discover principles that we 
never suspected, of decidedly evil tenden- 
cy, and a conduct that we cannot but think 
irreconcilable to the professions that won 
our first regard; it is surely, in such a case, 
both just and rational to abate of our inti- 
macy, though this should be done gradu- 
ally, with a cautious and almost unwilling 
scrutiny; but the circumstances repeatedly 



ON CHARITY. 65 

and clearly proved, that cannot abide with 
our former good opinion, we are at liberty 
to be more distant, to advise when we can, 
and to hope always, even to the end; since 
the case, whatever it may be, is in the 
hands of Providence. Let us not attempt 
to give a false gloss to what is manifestly 
wrong; still less let us delight to dwell on 
a subject of real regret, which we cannot 
relieve. In a confidential conversation, 
we must not prevaricate; but there is no 
occasion to anticipate the censure of the 
world, or to add to its severity; the mind 
may take its own distinct views, and act 
accordingly; but except with those friends 
who participate in our regret, and who 
maintain the same tenor of good will, there 
is much eligible safety in silence. 

Charity will ever be kept alive by a deep 
sense of our own imperfections, and though 
we cannot but retire from the man who 
makes religion a stalking-horse, we may 
hope that there is a spark of vital essence 
even in so crude a form, that he will at 



66 ON CHARITY. 

length out-talk himself, and be ashamed, in 
some silent hour, of a mimicry from which 
he can derive no substantial good. Char- 
ity can never live with false pretence, but 
it will offer its more genuine and purer 
principles, only when this can be done 
with the promise of success; it will con- 
sider what methods are best suited, and 
may be most successfully adopted, to pro- 
mote general and individual good, consist- 
ent with the laws of harmony and peace 5 
with which it delights to dwell. 



ON 

ORDER AND DISORDER. 



Were mankind fully convinced that the 
Supreme Being who created them can 
alone accomplish for them the purpose for 
which they were created, which is their 
eternal happiness, to begin on earth, and 
to perfect itself in heaven, they would lis- 
ten to those laws which revelation has made 
known to them for its attainment, consid- 
ering them as laws, not to deprive them of 
real blessings and comforts, but gradually 
to confer them, with everlasting increase. 
Instead of a surrender of the mind and its 
affections to the divine laws, and of perse- 
vering in the road which the finger of God 
has pointed out to them, men, like unto- 
ward children, prefer to wander through 
woods and forests, delighted with unknown 
tracts, and exposed to briers and thorns,- 



68 ORDER AND DISORDER. 

to the poisonous berries of self-love, and 
to the envenomed bite of serpents and rep- 
tiles of the most noxious kind: such are 
the various unrestrained passions, the con- 
tinual tormentors of those, who, endeavor- 
ing to surmount the temperate degree, in 
worldly enjoyments, lose that sweet relish 
which a moderate participation of them, 
under the control of heavenly principles, 
can alone impart. It would be as easy 
for a tree to thrive with its root in the air, 
and its branches in the ground, as for the 
happiness of man to attain to any degree 
of real progress by quitting its proper cen- 
tre in God, and by burying in earthly pur- 
suits the fruit-bearing blossoms of a mind 
organized for celestial contemplation, and 
the purest moral practice. 

Let us fancy, for a moment, a small so- 
ciety of truly rational- beings, whose minds 
are enlightened from the fountain of wis- 
dom in the Divine Word, who, in the true 
worship of the heart, love God above all 
things, in the natural, moral, and spiritual 



ORDER AND DISORDER, 69 

order in which they delight to move; whose 
wants are easily supplied, because they are 
content with little; who from a principle of 
active goodness, the offspring of their su- 
preme love of the Deity, are ever watchful 
to contribute something to promote the 
well-being of their neighbor; who meet to 
converse a little about their worldly con- 
cerns, and much about the enlivening pros- 
pects of futurity; who are enamored of 
truth, because by truth they find out the 
operations of goodness, which they delight 
to engage in; who, amidst a world far dif- 
ferently disposed, patiently wait the lapse 
of a few years, which will pass away as a 
dream, when they shall resuscitate in im- 
mortal youth in bodies not subject to de- 
cay, but, like the soul which animates them, 
be more and more perfected to all eternity. 
In such a society, envy, hatred, malice, 
deceit, pride, and selfishness, could find no 
admittance, but humility, kindness, conde- 
scension, and every reciprocal act of gen- 
uine charity, would be ever manifested in 
6 



70 ORDER AND DISORDER. 

» 

a variety of forms, having a continual ten- 
dency to promote inward peace, even in 
the bosom of outward trials, individually 
giving glory to God for piloting their feeble 
barks through the storms and tempests 
which man's perverted free agency has 
brought on time, till they are safely landed 
on the eternal shores, where heavenly or- 
der and increasing felicity shall bury the 
perils they have passed in sweet oblivion. 



ON SELF-EXAMINATION. 



Self-examination is practised in the 
early stages of regeneration as a duty en- 
forced, the expediency of which is seen 
and felt, that we may thereby discover our 
latent and prevailing evils, and every false 
defence which the natural mind will fre- 
quently set up. Self-examination, by lay- 
ing open our manifold imperfections of 
heart and mind, will lead to humiliation, 
and this to adoration, and to a constant 
endeavor to obey the divine command- 
ments. This is a duty which the natural 
mind thinks not of, its views continually 
verging to self-elevation; it labors to be- 
come great for the possession of the king- 
dom of this world, and cannot endure the 
idea of becoming little for the kingdom of 
heaven; but as the mind is enlarged with 
spiritual views, it begins to think little of the 
world, and more of heaven, and by the in- 



72 SELF-EXAMINAT [ON. 

struction of the sacred Word is taught in 
what that fitness consists which can qualify 
us for the enjoyment of the future state of 
happiness which the natural mind has no rel- 
ish for. As the spiritual life advances in 
progress, self-examination, which was at first 
a duty imposed, and obeyed with frequent 
reluctance, becomes more and more sponta- 
neous; every day furnishes a more distinct 
view of its occurrences, and, as it were, 
sits in judgment on itself: the words and 
actions of others do not pass unobserved, 
but the minute and severe scrutiny is on 
our own, for though the motive and general 
tendency of the spiritual mind be to shun 
evil and to promote good, its motives and 
ends are frequently interrupted hy counter- 
acting principles. The love of self and 
the world, though weakened, are not sub- 
dued, and their influence is often discov- 
ered by habitual observation, in a thousand 
subtle forms. Nothing leads to self-exam- 
ination so directly as the frequent and de- 
vout contemplation of the Deity in His 



SELF-EXAMINATION. 73 

wonderful works, and in the display of His 
infinite goodness; this, like letting in the 
sun's rays, will discover to us our dark 
spots, and, while it increases our humility, 
will lead us to a kind and merciful consid- 
eration of the faults and imperfections of 
our neighbor. 



6* 



ON PRAYER. 



Prayer is communication with God, 
and in the degree that we are ardent and 
sincere in our devotion, the affections will 
be open to heavenly influence, and celes- 
tial light as well as heat will be communi- 
cated. Were it not for prayer, which 
brings us home to God, by consecrating 
the day and the night to His worship, we 
should be lost in the maze of worldly cares, 
anxieties, and difficulties, through the day, 
and our sleep would give us no calm re- 
pose. In the Lord's prayer, which is 
prayer in its most perfect form, we are 
taught to acknowledge the Lord as the sole 
object of our worship; to revere His name 
or attributes; to desire at heart the restor- 
ation of His kingdom within us and through- 
out the world; to resign our wills to His 
will in all His dispensations, and in every 
act of His providence, till earth shall be- 



ON PRAYER. 75 

come as heaven within us, till the external 
form of our actions be one with the inter- 
nal spirit which rules them, and that the 
whole earth may be brought to the worship 
of the Lord in the harmony and peace of 
heaven. We are taught to pray that the 
Lord will provide all things for us, accord- 
ing to the measure of our manifold wants 
of bodily and spiritual kind, known only to 
His infinite wisdom. That we may con- 
tinually share His forgiving mercy, which 
we cannot share unless we act by the gen- 
uine influence of it towards our neighbor, 
since the heart that knows no benevolence, 
pity, and compassion to mankind, shuts out 
the love of God, which, like the sun, al- 
ways shines, but cannot enter into opaque 
bodies, which resist its influence. We are 
taught to pray to be led out of temptation, 
by being delivered from the power of evil, 
and to ascribe our salvation and fitness for 
heaven to the power of the Lord, ope- 
rating on our feeble endeavors, to whom 
alone we shall ascribe the glory for ever. 



76 ON PRAYER. 

This divine prayer is so full, while it ap* 
pears so compendious a form of the pro- 
gress of the Christian worship and practi- 
cal life, that there is not a single sentence 
in it but what contains infinitude, nor can 
there be any form of true devotion, nor a 
single sigh of humble adoration, or of ce- 
lestial ardor, with man during his pilgrim- 
age, or in the ecstasy of archangels, but 
what proceeds from, and is brought home 
to, the tenor of this short but infinitely 
perfect form of words. It is thought, by 
many serious minds, that the prolonged 
and multiplied forms of prayer which are 
in use at this day, are more calculated to 
promote the service of the lips than of the 
heart; through long and repeated forms the 
mind wanders, because the attention wea- 
ries, and that which should enliven our de- 
votion abates of its ardor. Children are 
taught, in early years, to join in many vain 
repetitions, which they feel as a task im- 
posed, and rejoice when the service is at 
an end. It would be far more profitable to 



ON PRAYER. 77 

explain to them the Lord's prayer, accord- 
ing to their infant capacities, rather than to 
make the service of God tedious and even 
painful to them. There can be little doubt, 
that were our public prayers shortened, 
they would be better suited to the devout 
mind, and our worship would have more 
conformity to our Lord's advice, not to 
use vain repetitions; this might be easily 
accomplished by making the Lord's prayer 
and the Divine Word the standard of our 
prayers and of our praise. 



ON REGENERATION. 



The first birth of man is of the body, 
for its proper uses and functions in the 
world; the second birth, or regeneration, 
is of the mind, for its proper uses and 
functions in the world, and, after this life, 
for sublimer uses in a spiritual body in 
heaven. The mind of man, consisting of 
will and understanding, having been through 
successive generations perverted from its 
genuine course, and too much captivated 
with this world to think much of its higher 
destination, it has become a work of per- 
severing difficulty to regulate its powers, 
and to bring them under the divine influ- 
ence to the obedience of the divine pre- 
cepts, and to a life of such order as the 
heavenly inhabitants are subject to and de- 
light in. The first dawn of the infant mind 
is to the use of the bodily senses, by which 
the body itself is preserved, and its health 



ON REGENERATION. 79 

promoted; it is well, therefore, to indulge 
in a discreet degree these first delights of 
the mind, which, closely connected with 
the body, grows with its growth, and 
strengthens with its strength. In its ma- 
turer state, when the powers of reason are 
unfolded, the precepts of virtue taught by 
revelation should become the rule of life, 
and in proportion as their influence pre- 
vails, man becomes a creature of order, 
what is sensual is obedient to what is ra- 
tional, and what is rational to what is di- 
vine ; this order constitutes the second 
birth, or regeneration; for as the body was 
born of woman, so, in the regeneration, 
the mind is born of God; its primary af- 
fections are fixed on the Supreme Being, 
or the love of goodness, and on the pro- 
motion of the happiness and well-being of 
mankind, which is the love of truth, or of 
the true order of things; for genuine truth 
is the principle of goodness brought into 
action, and manifested in its various opera- 
tions and relations. The love of self, and 



80 ON REGENERATION. 

of worldly possessions, are the prevailing 
obstacles to this great work, which cannot 
advance till these degraded affections are 
subdued, or rendered subordinate to more 
elevated pursuits. To be regenerated, is 
to prefer an heavenly inheritance to an 
earthly one, the attainment of moral excel- 
lence to worldly opulence, power, or fame; 
the love of justice and of social kindness 
to pre-eminence, or to any temporal re- 
ward of any kind; to prefer humble adora- 
tion to self-elevation, and contentment to 
ambition. Every one is regenerated only 
in the degree that the love of God and 
neighborly love, bearing the sway in the 
inmost affections, are manifested in the in- 
finite variety of forms of the life and con- 
versation. 



As regeneration advances, the percep- 
tion refines, the minuter shades of distinc- 
tion between good and evil are seen in 
clearer light; and as in the commencement 



ON REGENERATION. 81 

of the formation of the new will and un- 
derstanding, grosser evils were shunned, 
so the lesser ones now come into view, 
and many of these, which before were ad- 
mitted or excused, are now by experience 
known to be hurtful, and must of necessity 
be abandoned; many things which before 
were painful, and occasioned deep regret 
when brought before the tribunal of the 
understanding, are now condemned by the 
immediate instinctive sensation of the will 
or affection, till eternity becomes, as it 
were, the touchstone of time, till our ac- 
tions here are transferred to our trial there, 
and till the mind revolts at any principle in 
its voluntary practice, which it would not 
wish should appear undisguised and naked 
before angels. Every thing in the more 
interior stages of the new birth, or of the 
heavenly order of the heart and mind, are 
referred to God. If success attends our 
temporal undertakings, we shall discern in 
them so many gifts from God in a more 
extended scale of usefulness, and our tri- 
7 



82 ON REGENERATION. 

umphs will be those of thanksgiving and 
praise. Should adverse fortune prevail, 
we shall conclude it is best for us, and that 
some attainment in goodness, which we 
want, is forming in the crucible, for our fu- 
ture advancement. If we suffer pain, we 
know that our patience and submission are 
exercised; that some dross which adheres 
too strongly is removing from the virgin 
gold; that the trial, however severely felt, 
is a purifying process. Do we suffer by 
slanderous tongues? we shall look up to 
the Lord as our judge. Do our enemies 
prosper, and does malignity triumph over 
our fall? we shall consider that the pur- 
poses, as well as the conditions of all men, 
are under the supreme control of the Lord, 
whose footsteps of infinite goodness, wis- 
dom, and power, are unknown. Does 
death threaten us, at the moment in which 
our temporal concerns take a brighter form? 
we shall consider that we know not what 
decoy may lurk in the transient sunshine, 
and that a brighter sun awaits us with un- 



ON REGENERATION. 83 

ceasing rays. Have we been disappointed 
of a much desired partner here, by many 
unforeseen events? our choice will become 
infallible hereafter, when Providence will 
direct our erring minds to an indissoluble 
union with the only kindred spirit that is 
in every degree suited for the improvement 
of our mutual eternal felicity. 



In the progress of regeneration, the 
changes of state are, for the most part, in- 
scrutable; most of them transcend angelic 
wisdom, and are known to the Lord alone: 
yet the little which we perceive, we are 
sometimes enabled to describe with some 
degree of clearness. In proportion as the 
natural mind is awakened to spiritual views, 
like a tree decorated with leaves in 
spring, every new shoot puts forth new 
beauty as it emerges from its winter state, 
till it is crowned and surrounded with blos- 
soms, or with spiritual truths; the pleasing 
and delightful forebodings of abundance of 



84 ON REGENERATION. 

fruit, in the degree that these escape the 
blighting winds of self-love and the love of 
the world. The natural mind, thus array- 
ed in the early spring of the regenerate 
life, is delightful to behold, and many more 
will be attracted by the appearance of its 
blossoms, than gratified by the deeper re- 
flection that the tree must retire again to a 
comparatively winter state, and that what 
is outwardly so gratifying to the sight, 
must give way to the formation of fruits 
still more gratifying to the more useful sus- 
tenance of life. Temptations often repeat- 
ed, and sometimes attended with direful 
despondency, will assail the new convert, 
and will at times lead his mind, with its af- 
fections, into the very desert of the wil- 
derness, that it may contemplate its own 
vileness, discover its manifold evils, and 
look up to the Lord alone for deliverance. 
These temptations will successively excite 
an abhorrence of evil; and the sufferer in 
them, when refreshed with intervals of 
peace, will acknowledge at heart, that one 



ON REGENERATION. 85 

genuine ray of spiritual sunshine is far more 
exhilarating than all the natural delights, 
which, in the former life, had been sought 
with so much eagerness, and cultivated 
with so much care; these grow more and 
more insipid, as the new satisfactions ac- 
quire strength, till the objects of time 
gradually shrink from the grasp of eternity, 
and till the enlivening prospects of futurity, 
built on a sincere desire of obedience to 
the divine laws, give a serenity of mind, 
which the restless billows of passion can- 
not disturb. Worldly pleasures have been 
repeatedly experienced to end in a variety 
of pain, in satiety, regret, dissatisfaction, 
and disgust: spiritual sufferings, on the 
contrary, end in tears of delight, in calm 
and humble submission, in the sweetness 
of heavenly resolutions, in the reviving 
hope, and sometimes the foretaste of future 
felicity. The former pleasures were at- 
tended with disappointment, almost in the 
enjoyment; the new satisfactions are built 
on everlasting foundations, and are occa- 



86 ON REGENERATION. 

sionally taken from us only to be removed 
by combats against those selfish and world- 
ly foes that would deprive us of them, and 
that we may be rendered more and more 
sensible that they are, in every degree of 
attainment, like our life itself, the free gift 
of God. The spiritual life, in its pro- 
gress, has much to undergo from uncon- 
genialities, and very often as much from 
erroneous conclusions; so soon as we be- 
gin to prefer heaven to earth, we are im- 
patient to be translated to a climate, in 
whose pure atmosphere we have not yet 
lungs to breathe, and where we should lose 
the pulsation of the heart. Heavenly af- 
fections are acquired by slow degrees; 
they are not promoted by impatient wishes 
and fruitless sighs. The spiritual traveler, 
who, on his first setting out, sighs so fre- 
quently for heaven, will find, only on a 
slight examination of his state, that he of- 
ten sighs too for those worldly possessions , 
which he fancies he could so aptly accom- 
modate to spiritual use, while he discovers 



ON REGENERATION. 87 

not the lure which fascinates him. Pain- 
ful uncongenialities, occasioned by a forced 
intercourse with the world, which so often 
sickens on the new-born taste of the spir- 
itual mind, have their real uses occasionally, 
by opening the contrast to our views, which 
brighten by things opposite, by forcing self 
to subside: even our spiritual selfishness, 
by a discovery of the states of the minds 
of others, to which, while we see much to 
avoid, we may endeavor to administer kind 
and seasonable aid, they will serve also to 
enliven by privation the relish of what we 
most prefer. There is, doubtless, a par- 
ticular and unerring Providence in bringing 
us into situations that excite aversion, as 
into such as most favor our truest delights. 
When the spiritual mind advances in pro- 
gress to the dawn of the celestial state, it 
will make more interior discoveries by a 
single glance, than it could have made in 
its prior states by its deepest researches, 
and in its clearest vision. 

The spiritual mind is in causes, or means, 



88 ON REGENERATION. 






or truths far above the comprehension of 
the natural mind, laboring in the dark shade 
of effects; but the celestial mind is in ends 
or goodness, to be brought about by the 
former causes or means, and sees the ac- 
complishment in the effects; it has a lively 
sensation, as well as vision, that the begin- 
nings and endings of all things are in God; 
it is most in self-annihilation when in its 
most lucid states, for it is then most in the 
recipiency of goodness from its divine 
source; and in the twilight of its evening 
shade, it quietly submits, and waits the 
revival of its energies with the rising sun. 
Evil, which the natural mind indulges, and 
which the spiritual mind condemns, the 
heavenly mind views with pity, as a feeble 
unavailing effort, the sad delusion of insan- 
ity, and the fretful workings of disorders 
which must be overthrown. 

The natural mind exults in selfish and 
worldly loves: the spiritual mind is at war 
against them, and is blessed with intervals 
of peace. The heavenly mind, having 



ON REGENERATION. 89 

subdued them by power from the Lord, 
presents such affections as are best calcu- 
lated to win upon the heart. 

The natural mind offers the seduction of 
false delights. The spiritual mind offers 
the force of religious precept, realized by 
example. The heavenly mind shows that 
the end of the commandment is peace, and 
would win men to it by love. 

The natural mind is confined to earth, 
where it would gladly prolong its existence. 
The spiritual mind would gladly leave earth 
for heaven, and join the ascending angels 
which Jacob saw. The heavenly mind, 
having ascended the heavenly ladder, would 
return with the descending angels, to invite 
others to the celestial abodes. 



CONSOLATION OFFERED TO 



THE DYING CHRISTIAN. 






Death is the gate of life, since to die 
is to live for ever. It is the concluding 
day to all our worldly cares and anxieties, 
and the commencement of serene undis- 
turbed delight, and of eternal peace. It 
is the putting off our perishable forms, 
with the frailties and diseases that wait 
upon them, to resuscitate with the privi- 
leges of immortality in forms forever per- 
fecting in beauty, in proportion as our 
hearts and minds improve in the love of 
goodness and in the order of truth. Ce- 
lestial angels will delight to fan the flame 
of our languid virtue, and to lead us to pro- 
gressive degrees of improvement through 
the boundless ages of eternity. To die is 
to meet our beloved friends to part no more, 
assured, at the moment of our departure 



CONSOLATION IN DEATH. 91 

from this world, that those who are dear 
to us will soon follow. This world is but 
the cradle of our existence, and the Al- 
mighty, who gave us being, best knows 
when it is fittest for us to be translated to 
a happier clime. When He calls us, shall 
we not with cheerfulness obey His voice, 
while angels are hovering round our pil- 
low, to lead us the way to our immortal 
existence? Our Lord resuscitated on the 
third day, and the soul, which cannot die, 
will, on being detached from this earthly 
imprisonment, wake to newness of life, 
endowed with a consciousness of its im- 
mortal powers, and strongly invited to 
pursue, by the example of surrounding 
happy spirits, every purpose of divine 
love and charity, crowned with eternal 
adoration of the Lord of Life and Glory, 
whom, even in the splendor of His out- 
ward works, we have in this world but 
faintly seen, and even in the light of His 
Gospel, have viewed but as through a glass 
darkly. But in the immortal state, in the 



92 CONSOLATION IN DEATH. 

divine light of an unsetting sun, we shall 
be favored with a nearer approach to the 
radiance of infinitely more stupendous dis- 
plays of His creating power and paternal 
care. This world has cost us many a sigh, 
but these should cease when our brightest 
hopes are beginning to realize, when the 
cloud is removing, and the everlasting gates 
are opening to receive us. 



ON CONVERSATION. 



Conversation is calculated to recreate 
as well as to improve the mind. By the 
privilege of speech, we can communicate 
the spontaneous effusions of thought, and 
introduce subjects the most interesting to 
our own and our neighbor's happiness; we 
can not only enter upon such concerns as 
the varieties of every day may suggest, of 
civil and moral tendency, but, by the aid 
of revelation, we can carry our ideas be- 
yond the limits of time, and may render 
our discourse interesting, even to attendant 
angels. What a pity is it then, that so 
many hours, days, and nights, should be 
spent by thousands in the most frivolous 
pursuits, such as fill the mind with vain 
and trifling ideas, which serve to excite' 
every disorderly passion, and to lay the 
foundation of untimely disease and death! 
Pageantry is called forth to support pride, 
till there is a rivalry in excess. Through 
S 



94 ON CONVERSATION. 

the splendor of the midnight scene, the 
mind, as well as body, is deprived of rest, 
and if all were to retire who will not own 
their disgust, but few comparatively would 
remain to keep up the farce of artificial 
delight, which palls on the appetite of its 
votaries. But, leaving the haunts of in- 
temperance, dissipation, and folly, where 
conversation is reduced to the merest rav- 
ellings of thought, we might expect far 
superior entertainment with those who have 
long professed their predilection for more 
rational entertainment from a religious 
source. But here, again, disappointment 
often prevails; the conversation often takes 
a desultory turn; the ideas that flow from 
the sacred fountain of Divine revelation 
are listened to for a moment, and are often 
in a moment dispersed, to give way to 
some trifling incident, or to the record of 
some dull fact, which the natural mind will 
doat on; as if the prospects of eternity 
were less interesting than those of time, 
the varieties of infinitude more circum- 



ON CONVERSATION. 95 

scribed than the trifling scenery of the day, 
and the soul's essential happiness of less 
importance than imaginary delights. Thus 
it happens, that the purpose of social re- 
ligious meetings is frequently interrupted 
and drawn aside, by intruding subjects of 
little moment; the hours slip away that 
were intended to be far differently devot- 
ed; whereas, were only a few friends to 
meet, whose minds are open to eternal 
views, and whose hearts are won over to 
eternal interests, continued and varied sat- 
isfaction would arise from animated com- 
munications on sublime and useful sub- 
jects, which would spread a stillness over 
the mind, elevate its enjoyments, and fur- 
nish on the morrow, calm and pleasing 
reflections, such as the spiritual mind stands 
in need of to counteract the troubles and 
disappointments of each succeeding day. 
By frequent conversations among a few 
friends, at evening, the mind is buoyed up, 
and kept in its proper element; it is re- 
freshed with returns of gratitude to the 



96 ON CONVERSATION. 

Divine Providence, is expanded with neigh- 
borly love, and becomes more and more 
fitted for heaven. 



When the mind is in a state of freedom, 
it will resort to subjects that are most in- 
teresting to its affections and views, and 
when impediments, from a variety of caus- 
es, prevail, it will feel more or less dis- 
appointment; and sometimes, from being 
denied opportunities in society of intro- 
ducing such a turn of conversation as it 
delights in, and from being forced to at- 
tend to what is not only uninteresting, but 
wearisome, it will sink into a state of tor- 
por, and remain almost without ideas. 
From the subjects of conversation which 
a man always prefers, and which he is spon- 
taneously led to when he has free choice, 
he may form a just and clear determination 
of the quality of his affections, and of the 
ruling affection to which every other is sub- 
servient. Thus the man whose ruling af- 



ON CONVERSATION. 97 

fection begins and ends in the boundaries 
of his estate or diversified property, will 
insensibly turn to the objects of his de- 
light, and will talk much of worldly posses- 
sions; the politician, if he cannot carry his 
thoughts a little higher than the affairs of 
this world, will incessantly dwell on the 
forms and changes of government, more 
especially if he bears a part in them; and 
if he has wealth as well as power, he will 
be found habitually in a train of thought 
that favors the worship of his idols. The 
disputant will find a constant field for con- 
troversy, in politics, in civil or religious 
subjects; his ruling love being that of con- 
trol, instead of promoting harmony, he for 
the most part delights in a state of war- 
fare, excites his adversary to opposition, 
and aims more at triumph than at truth; for 
the researches after truth are sober and 
calm, not violent, but conciliatory, endeav- 
oring to collect the scattered rays of light, 
and to bring the subject into clearness, 
while the disputant frequently ends his con- 
8* 



98 ON CONVERSATION. 

versation by leaving all things in doubt, in 
darkness, and confusion. 

The man of literature, whose ruling pas- 
sion is the attainment of knowledge, is 
qualified to strew his way with flowers; to 
be at once amusing and instructive, provid- 
ed that his attainments are set off with a 
manner that is unassuming and condescend- 
ing, and that he continually bears in mind 
the end of all human learning, the improve- 
ment of moral excellence, and a more 
humble adoration of the Deity; for, with- 
out religion, learning will lead to ignorance, 
as w T ell as to pride and infidelity; since the 
peasant who knows the laws of God and 
obeys them, is wiser than he who ques- 
tions, doubts, and disobeys, which many 
of the learned are apt to do. 

The heaven-taught mind alone, can give 
to conversation its greatest weight and tru- 
est interest. Practised in the true estima- 
tion of temporal things, when compared 
with eternal, the true Christian, in his ele- 
vated views, will seek his inheritance in 



ON CONVERSATION. 99 

immortality, and will reconcile the quick 
succession of events that occur from day 
to day, whether prosperous or adverse, re- 
lying on the control of Infinite Wisdom, 
which is ever at work for the completion 
of human happiness. He will, in society, 
vary his subjects of conversation, and suit 
them to the occasion, and to the minds of 
individuals, but he will gladly seize on ev- 
ery fair opportunity to attract the powers 
of reason to the laws of revelation, to bring 
the ideas, thoughts, and conversation of 
men on earth, into the order and harmony 
of heaven. 



ON OUR INTERCOURSE WITH 

THE WORLD. 



What is life that has death in it, and 
what are temporal pursuits when separated 
from eternal views? They are not only 
fleeting, but delusive shadows. In the 
degree that we acquire the life of truth, 
every thing that is false will excite aver- 
sion: in the degree that we love goodness, 
evil must be held in abhorrence. Such 
being the nature of all things that are oppo- 
site in form and essence, the spiritual mind 
cannot, without much sensible pain, blend 
with worldly minds, where all things op- 
pose the order it has adopted, bring con- 
fusion on all its arrangements, and offer it 
ashes for beauty. Doubtless, that kind 
and unerring Providence which has opened 
to our view the fountain of truth, and en- 
abled us to partake in many an exhilarating 
draught of the waters of life, will not lead 



WORLDLY INTERCOURSE. 101 

us to the shallow streams of the waters of 
bitterness, oftener than may be requisite 
for our advancing states, which we can 
neither see nor judge of. The bitter wa- 
ters which the children of Israel met with, 
in the wilderness, were rendered sweet by- 
casting wood into them; and so will the 
bitter waters which we so often complain 
of, be rendered palatable, when that good 
to which the wood thrown in corresponds, 
has blended its benign qualities with them. 
If we watch our opportunities, when mixed 
with the world, we shall find many good 
purposes to promote; even to the laughter 
of inconsiderate mirth, that often leagues 
with mischief, we may administer some 
happier turn of thought than triumph or 
ridicule can boast; at the luxuriant feast, 
if mindful of temperate restraint, we may 
season the repast with something at least 
remotely good, some observations of moral 
tendency, some anecdote that shows the 
deformity of vice, or the praise of excel- 
lence ; we may strive imperceptibly to 



102 WORLDLY INTERCOURSE. 

bend, and not to break, the tide of con- 
versation into something that savors of or- 
der, of beauty, of benevolence, of nature, 
of reason, and of God. We may smother 
the tale of scandal in the conspicuous mer- 
it of some living character; we may be 
politely attentive, without flattery, and by 
lending an ear to many things that are er- 
roneous, perverted, and uninteresting, may 
in turn excite the more notice to our re- 
marks on an infinitude of subjects, to be 
discreetly offered, which may introduce 
what is true and what is useful, even for the 
reflections of eternity as well as of time: 
on our return home, we shall then have 
something cheering to recollect; or should 
these opportunities have been denied us, 
as they sometimes will, by the effusions of 
irrational mirth, or contending politics, let 
us at least look back to our conscious bet- 
ter purpose, and to the discreet, and often 
silent course w T hich we have pursued, and 
the pain of uncongeniality which we bring 
home with us will be greatly mitigated, and 



WORLDLY INTERCOURSE. 103 

quickly subside. But if we have not only 
been unguarded in our conduct, but have 
yielded to the vague delights of the natural 
mind, have forgotten those treasures which 
the spiritual mind has stored, and for hours 
have eagerly adopted the shadow for the 
substance, have fanned the flame of folly, 
have fed the sensual appetite, and enlisted, 
for a while, as the disciples of noisy in- 
considerate mirth, or of too pointed rail- 
lery, and heard the irreligious insinuation 
without a becoming check, when we return 
home, our pain and reproach will arise 
more from the life we have been ensnared 
to, than from the privation of our own, 
and we must, in this case, be humbled 
with the prodigal son, before we can sit 
down a guest to our accustomed feast; we 
must shake off the natural life, which has 
seduced us, before we can return to spir- 
itual life. 

Let us therefore endeavor, when invited 
to social intercourse with the world, to be 
guarded against its seduction. The mind 



104 WORLDLY INTERCOURSE. 

that is wholly regenerate cannot be seduc- 
ed, but lives secure in its ethereal element; 
it cannot descend to inferior objects with- 
out being surrounded with its own atmos- 
phere, which is more fully receptive of the 
Divine influence; but during the process 
of regeneration, the mind, exposed to va- 
rying affections of what is celestial above, 
and natural beneath, often, in the weakness 
of its progress, partakes, as it were, of an 
amphibious nature; its views are often at 
variance with its attractions, its understand- 
ing explores, with eagle sight, the heavenly 
kingdom, while the new will lends wings to 
aid its flight; but the old will would fain at 
times draw it down to earth again, and blend 
together irreconcilable properties. Let 
us watch, therefore, against evils, that good 
may become more and more permanent in 
its influence, securing us against the charms 
of fancy, and the fruitless wishes of a rest- 
less mind, which, under a veil of illusion, 
will offer us quails for manna. Let us pro- 
ceed with diffident and humble caution, 



DIFFICULTY OF TftUST IN PROVIDENCE. 105 

with a constant desire and unceasing prayer 
to be directed on our way, and we may rest 
assured that the Divine Providence will 
protect us while in association with the 
world, and will ultimately wean us from its 
influence, as we become more and more 
matured for heaven. 



ON THE DIFFICULTY OF ATTAINING A SET- 
TLED AND ENTIRE TRUST IN PROVI- 
DENCE. 

When worldly things go well with world- 
ly minds, they are in good humor with Prov- 
idence, and are willing to pay an apparent 
homage for those good things which they 
secretly hope to preserve and to increase 
by their own independent endeavors. That 
this is the temper of worldly men in pros- 
perity, is evident from their general conduct 
in adversity; they are then deprived of their 
apparent confidence, for they cannot trust 
Providence in the dark; still less can they 
9 



106 DIFFICULTY OF ATTAINING 

suppose that Providence is equally kind in 
depriving us of our possessions, as in se- 
curing them to us. When all things pros- 
per, they are willing to call their good for- 
tune by the name of Providence; but when 
their darling schemes miscarry, they exam- 
ine and endeavor to find out the cause in 
something casual. The natural mind, in 
reality, has no belief in Providence, but 
rather considers- the world as a clock, or 
curious piece of mechanism, which, being 
once wound up, is left to go by itself, and 
is subject to many contingencies. Far dif- 
ferent are the views of the truly regenerate 
mind, which, from an affection for truth, 
and from the hope of being more and more 
firmly fixed in that good to which the eter- 
nal truth of the Word unerringly leads, sees 
God in all things; the rational mind, lit up 
by revelation, clearly discovers that there 
could be no Providence, if it did not exist 
in the small as in the great, since great 
events are made up of small contingencies, 
and owe their unfoldings and progress to 



A TRUST IN PROVIDENCE. 107 

the latter, as trees grow out of and expand 
from their seed. The regenerate mind, in 
its interior views, takes, as it w r ere, a mi- 
croscopic view of the Divine Providence; 
and though in its most lucid states even the 
celestial mind can discover but a small share 
of what is infinite, it is nevertheless led in- 
to myriads of wonders in beautiful and or- 
derly display, which escape entirely from 
the natural mind, in its gross and confined 
vision. The changes of state, it must be 
allowed, are so various in the progress of 
spiritual life, that our general acknowledg- 
ments are often obscured in partial doubts: 
the old will, ere we can part with it, often 
interrupts the progress of the new; the 
former, whenever it prevails, opposes its 
sensations to confession and acknowledg- 
ment; while the latter, under every moment 
of its influence, leads to unconditional sub- 
mission. Till we arrive at this state, the 
sweet and peaceful dependence of yester- 
day on the Divine Providence may be borne 
away to-day by some new form of difficul- 



108 DIFFICULTY OF ATTAINING 

ty. The understanding, in its renovating 
process, leads us to the Divine Word, like 
a child to be taught; it not only sees and 
acknowledges, but delights in the prospect 
of new degrees of attainment in heavenly 
affections. When the new will prevails, 
it realizes those delights; but so often as 
the old will returns, it deprives us of our 
tranquil states, asks for possession instead 
of dependence, and in its degraded concu- 
piscence will often sigh for those delights 
which the rational mind had left, and will 
excite a secret devotion to some golden 
calf, by seducing the understanding to its 
constant plea of a little more comfort and 
a little less care. Whereas, the new will 
in the celestial mind, in possessing the 
Lord, possesses all things; it can derive 
comfort from privation, and possession from 
dependence; and, like the bird of melody, 
can sweetly sing with its bosom on a thorn. 
It has received with the white stone* a new 

# See Apocalypse Explained. 



A TRUST IN PROVIDENCE. 109 

name, and derived from the union of good- 
ness and truth from the Lord, the perma- 
nency of peace. The regenerate heavenly 
mind becomes more and more insensible 
to self and the world, in proportion as it 
becomes more and more alive to God; it 
can at times enjoy the harmony of social 
intercourse, and at times find the most en- 
livening society, even in solitude; for heav- 
enly affections have intimate access to 
heavenly societies, whose mild influence is 
at times clearly perceived. In the world, 
its constant, though invisible operation, is 
to do good; it would requite all injuries by 
an endeavor to rectify the disorder that 
gave rise to them; and would, if possible, 
return all favors by a communication of its 
own delights; when power is denied, it 
enjoys its heavenly purpose, and when op- 
portunity is given, it immediately goes 
forth into action. 
9* 



ON THE 

ASSOCIATION OF ANGELS. 



As angels reside in the good affections, 
and these are so frequently interrupted or 
overshadowed, it is not surprising that we 
are seldom made conscious of their pres- 
ence; it nevertheless appears at intervals, 
sometimes when the mind is in the delight 
of good and useful purposes, or when re- 
flection has brought it to a settled calm. 
So when the purposes are disturbed or per- 
verted by counteracting circumstances, or 
uncongenial minds, and the thoughts are 
ruffled, it is often the signal for the ap- 
proach of evil spirits, who are delighted to 
fan the flame of discord, to encourage 
gloomy and desponding ideas, and thus to 
cloud the spiritual sun, that bright emana- 
tion in whose cheering rays we are made 
sensible that we live and move, and have a 
spiritual existence. The approach of an- 



ASSOCIATION OF ANGELS. Hi 

gelic spirits is inexpressibly sweet and calm, 
it restores all things to harmony and peace, 
and in breathing forth the purposes of good 
will, tranquillizes the mind, and disposes it 
to the silent offerings of gratitude and praise. 
Who, that for an hour has felt the soft and 
enlivening association of angelic spirits, 
would willingly indulge in any evil course 
of momentary enjoyment, that must drive 
away such pleasing associates, and intro- 
duce, in their stead, the dark, disorderly, 
and malignant crew, whose delight is the 
destruction of human happiness? Angels 
cannot dwell with disorder in any form, 
either of envy, hatred, malice, uncharita- 
bleness, false pretence, or impure desire; 
to guard against these subtile foes requires 
perpetual watchfulness, and a resistance to 
all the bribes that self-love and the love of 
the world will not cease to offer; we have, 
besides these, obstacles to surmount, that 
are for the most part undefined. Sickness, 
by detaching the mind from temporal things, 
will sometimes dispose to interior views, 



112 ASSOCIATION OF ANGffinS"." 

and open delightful prospects of futurity; 
at other times, the necessary attention to 
bodily complaints, as well as the sufferings 
themselves, will disappoint these interior 
views, and draw the attention to the poor, 
weak, citadel, which the enemy will riot 
in with increased violence and effect. In 
the present state of the world, while the 
affections have to combat with hereditary 
evils, and the body with a morbid inherit- 
ance, while regeneration sometimes appears 
in determined degrees of advancement, and 
at other times seems to fall off by a retro- 
grade motion, we cannot expect a perma- 
nent state of the fruition of the society of 
angelic visitants; but much may be done 
to solicit their more frequent visits, and 
their longer stay. Let us carefully arrange 
the subjects of our thoughts and pursuits, 
buoying them up with eternal views; let 
every evening prove a comment on the day; 
when our heavenly delights are obscured, 
let us bring the treasures of the Word to 
our aid; when we seem to be without uses, 



ASSOCIATION OF ANGELS. I 1 3 

let us study the more to avoid evils, and 
we shall be sure to be in them; should 
Providence seem to forsake us, let us seek 
Him in His promises, our spiritual enemies 
cannot long endure the sacred pages: let 
us patiently wait, and the morning will re- 
turn. 



THE CORRESPONDENCE OF 

THE HORSE. 



The horse corresponds to the under- 
standing of truth, exemplified in its general 
usefulness, in the delight it takes in exer- 
cise, in its form for activity, and in its obe- 
dience to the rider, as the understanding is 
to the will. There are horses that trip, that 
are shy, that are restive, and these qualities 
are found in human intellects; some horses 
are more docile, some more vicious, and 
some cannot be controlled, and in human 
understandings, these varying properties are 
conspicuous; stubbornness, teachableness, 
and wrong-headedness, mark the different 
characters we daily meet with. The horse 
of the truest symmetry and fleetest move- 
ment, with a safe manner of going, is most 
esteemed; and an understanding finely or- 
ganized, of quick comprehension and sound 
judgment, is most highly prized. The color 
denotes its peculiar characteristic quality, 
which will be found in the correspondence 
of colors. 



THE CORRESPONDENCE OF 

THE VINE. 



The vine, with its fruit, corresponds to 
spiritual truth, and the exactness of :he cor- 
respondence is, in many instances, clearly 
and beautifully unfolded. The tree spreads 
with great quickness, but it requires much 
sun to ripen its fruit, which, in a cold cli- 
mate, will Dot come to perfection: so di- 
vine truth, where there are cold affections, 
cannot arrive at maturity, but will remain 
in a raw, cold and sour state. When the 
grapes are ripe, and the juice expressed, 
it has its fermentation to undergo, before it 
is fit for use, so spiritual truth must under- 
go its fermentation, and get rid of hetero- 
geneous properties and adhering falsehoods, 
before it can come into use. As the vine 
is continually putting forth new bearing 
wood, so is Divine Truth, if we are care- 
ful of its culture. Only that quantity of 
wine is of use which promotes health, and 



116 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE VINE. 

only that quantity of truth which promotes 
good. A bad state of health may prevent 
the good use of wine, and a bad state of 
the affections will prevent the genuine use 
of truth. If the health be sound, it will 
derive from wine its best qualities, and if 
goodness be the sound and leading princi- 
ple of the affections, it will derive from 
Divine Truth an infinite variety of excel- 
lent properties and uses. 



THE CORRESPONDENCE OF 

THE DOVE. 



The dove corresponds to the truth and 
good of faith, which constitute the spiritual 
marriage; this bird is therefore distinguish- 
ed by its fidelity to its mate, and by its 
fond and wooing attentions: in like manner, 
the principles of genuine truth and good- 
ness are enamored with each other. The 
dove is remarkable for the velocity of its 
flight, especially when danger threatens, or 
when returning to its mate; in like manner 
will truth quickly disappear, when beset by 
evil and the false; and if separated from 
the good principle, impatiently returns. 
The dove, if carried far from home, and 
let loose, immediately darts upwards, and 
by an inexplicable instinct, or with an ex- 
traordinary keenness of vision, descries its 
abode, whither it wings its rapid flight. 
So, when the truth of good has been im- 
10 



118 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DOVE. 

prisoned, or borne down, by any uncon- 
genial force, when set free, mounts upward 
to its elevated views, with clearness of 
vision descries its abode in the Sacred 
Word, and with delight returns to its home. 
As doves delight to stand in the soft de- 
scending shower, so are truth and goodness 
refreshed with instructive discourses of 
wisdom. The dove descended at our 
Lord's baptism, as the innocent emblem of 
the truth of good, the form in which our 
Lord made his manifestation on earth. 



ON 

THE LORD'S PRAYER. 



As all the words as well as works of 
our Lord contain infinitude in them, so 
eternity cannot unfold them: the human 
mind, though finite, may, nevertheless, in 
the contemplation of this Divine Prayer, 
be opened more and more to new views of 
it, useful both for the animating spirit of 
worship, and the advancing progress of 
spiritual life. 

In this prayer are contained seven dis- 
tinct petitions, through which may be trac- 
ed the seven stages of regeneration, in 
agreement with the six days of creation 
and the seventh day of rest, explained in 
the first chapter of Genesis. It begins 
with an acknowledgment of God; for prior 
to this, no prayer can be offered up: in the 
beginning, God said, "Let there be light, 
and there was light." When the darkness 



120 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 

of infidelity is dispersed, and it is seen that 
God is, man can offer up the first petition, 
that he may venerate his Creator in the 
boundless manifestations of His love, wis- 
dom, and power. In the second petition, 
that he may live under their influence as 
the obedient subject of His kingdom: in 
the third, that his will, as well as under- 
standing, may be submitted to the divine 
laws, that while the latter is convinced, the 
former may feel their control in the inmost 
affections: in the fourth, that he may arrive 
at a state of dependence, confiding for all 
things in the Divine Providence: in the 
fifth, that the laws of charity may be exer- 
cised in their forgiving operations, for he 
who can freely forgive, is arrived at char- 
ity's most exalted duties; he who can for- 
give injuries with cordiality, can do all 
manner of good to his neighbor. In the 
sixth petition, man prays to be armed 
against the power of temptation from the 
kingdom of darkness; and in the seventh, 
for a deliverance from evil. Thus man is 



THE LORD'S PRAYER. 121 

taught to pray for the attainment of the ce- 
lestial state, and the prayer, beginning with 
an acknowledgment, ends with a glorifica- 
tion. The gradual fulfilment of it may be 
traced back from acknowledgment to ven- 
eration; from veneration to obedience; from 
obedience to love; from love to depend- 
ence; from dependence to charity; from 
charity to victory in temptation; from vic- 
tory in temptation to the cessation of the 
power of evil, which is the establishment 
of the kingdom of peace. 



An attempt has been made, on a former 
occasion, to prove that the Lord's Prayer 
contains a summary of the ten command- 
ments, the fulness of the prophecies, and 
the perfect form of our worship; to this 
may be added its harmonious agreement 
with the eight, beatitudes contained in our 
Lord's sermon on the mount. This har- 
mony is not interrupted by the variety in 
the arrangement of the latter, since every 
10* 



1 22 THE LORD'S PRAYER. 

part of the Divine Discourse will be found 
to accord with some part of the Divine 
Prayer. The blessing bestowed on those 
that hunger and thirst after righteousness, 
refers to states of the mind turning towards 
God. The blessing bestowed on the meek 
that shall inherit the earth, refers to those 
who in humility receive instruction, hallow 
the Lord's name, and become members of 
His church. 

The blessing bestowed on the poor in 
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, 
and on the pure in heart, for they shall see 
God, refers to the state when the Lord's 
kingdom is come, and His will is done on 
earth as it is in heaven, and when our de- 
pendence for all things needful is on the 
Divine Providence. 

The blessing bestowed on the merciful, 
for they shall obtain mercy, refers to the 
state of the forgiveness of our trespasses 
as we forgive those who trespass against us. 

The blessing bestowed on those who are 
persecuted for righteousness sake, refers to 



THE LORD'S PRAYER. 123 

states of temptation, from which deliver- 
ance is wrought. 

The blessing bestowed on the peace- 
makers, for they shall be called the chil- 
dren of God, refers to the state of peace, 
the final result of the beatitudes, and the 
completion of the Divine Prayer, for which 
we attribute the kingdom, the power, and 
the glory to the Lord. 



ON 

THE LIFE OF TRUTH, 

AND 

THE LIFE OF GOOD. 



The life of truth is a life of obedience, 
and the life of good is a life of love. The 
life of truth receives and acknowledges the 
commandments, and is in the constant en- 
deavor to abide by their rule, in opposition 
to many counteracting propensities; it is 
therefore a life of much labor and combat, 
but progressively advances to the life of 
good, which is the establishment of the 
commandments in the heart, or in the soul's 
delight. In the degree that good becomes 
the leading principle, the warfare ceases; 
evil having lost its lure, it ceases to charm 
and to divide the mind. During the life 
of truth, the understanding often reproves 
the untoward will, and temptations and des- 



LIFE OF TRUTH AND GOOD. 125 

olations abound. The life of good is a 
spontaneous rejection of evil, as the palate 
rejects unpleasant food, the eye unpleasant 
prospects, and the smell offensive vapors; 
the sensation acts instinctively, and the 
understanding afterwards confirms. In the 
former life, the understanding teaches, and 
the will, sometimes with pleasantness, and 
sometimes with reluctance, obeys. Dur- 
ing the life of truth, the activity of two 
opposite wills is sensibly perceived; the 
new will from the Lord acquiesces, and the 
old will, not yet subdued, frequently rebels. 
During the life of truth, faith distinguishes 
qualities, and occasions clearness of vision 
of those things which are brought into fru- 
ition by the life of good. 



ON THE 

DELIGHT OF GRATITUDE. 

The essential delight of gratitude can 
be known only to the regenerate mind, 
which acknowledges at heart all things as 
gifts from God, even privations and suffer- 
ings, which in their progress will unfold to 
the true Christian their hidden treasures. 
Gratitude is a never failing source of de- 
light, by making every enjoyment a bless- 
ing from Providence, whose goodness of- 
ten overpowers the feeling heart. The 
regenerate mind sees in its existence a 
source of eternal praise, and is deeply sen- 
sible that the Deity who gave life, gave it 
for happiness; and, lest erring man should 
mistake his way, gave laws and regulations 
for its attainment, which are infallible. 

Contentment and gratitude are insepa- 
rable companions; the former shuts the door 
against anxieties, while the latter opens the 



DELIGHT OF GRATITUDE. 127 

gate of delight. Contentment occasions a 
peaceful calm; and gratitude, a devout re- 
joicing, and silent offering up of perpetual 
incense to the Fountain of all good. The 
worldly mind, centred in self, instead of 
looking upward with adoration, looks down 
for distinction and subservience; it asks 
for more possessions, to excite increasing 
homage, fixing more and more in the mind 
a constant craving, with continual disap- 
pointment; while gratitude to the Supreme 
Being never ceases to excite benevolence 
to man, and an exquisite participation of 
the happiness which it promotes, from 
whence a fresh stream of gratitude flows. 
Secure in its humble dependence, it finds 
a temple of worship in the most fluctuating 
events, and in the deepest troubles descries 
the tender mercies of its God. 



ON THE 

DELIGHTS OF CONSTANCY, 

AND THE 

DELIGHTS OF VARIETY. 



The delights of constancy and of vari- 
ety may, at first sight, appear in opposition, 
while they are so closely united that the 
one cannot exist unless it depends on the 
other, no more than a flower can flourish, 
unless it is united to its root. The sun is 
constant in his rising, and all nature teems 
with abundance and variety, through his 
instrumentality. The enjoyment of every 
real rational comfort depends equally on 
our constancy in the adoration of the great 
First Cause: whenever we turn from this 
fountain of happiness, every enjoyment 
sickens and dies, as flowers cut off from 
their parent roots. 

In the marriage state, there can be no 



CONSTANCY AND VARIETY. 129 

true felicity but what is built on the con- 
stancy of unanimity and fidelity. Two ra- 
tional minds, in unison, are capable of pro- 
ducing endless varieties of mutual delights, 
by an interchange of kind offices and at- 
tentions, by the education of children, by 
the charms of conversation, and by varied 
pursuits; but so soon as the constancy of 
harmony and fidelity fails, the blossom of 
happiness dies. 



11 



ON THE 

DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 



That the course of the Divine Provi- 
dence should be inscrutable, is a truth that 
finds easy admittance in the regenerate 
mind, since all the acts of the providence 
of the Lord are a combination of His love, 
wisdom, and power; and these, being infi- 
nite, must transcend all human apprehen- 
sion. To rely, with humble and unshaken 
confidence on the Divine Providence, is 
the highest privilege of human beings, since 
it is accompanied with inward peace, and 
serene, undisturbed happiness. But this 
happy state cannot be attained till the di- 
vine precepts are engraved on the heart, 
and act spontaneously through the tenor of 
life. The activity of goodness, as a ruling 
principle, and the sweetness of dependence 
on the supreme control, go hand in hand; 
if the former relaxes, the latter is clouded 



DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 131 

over. The affections, purposes, desires, 
thoughts, and even ideas of thought, must 
be under the dominion of truth and good- 
ness in union, and self-dependence be dis- 
carded, before a delightful sense of the di- 
vine control and protection can be fully en- 
joyed; no wonder, then, that the fruition of 
this happy state, even with the regenerate, 
ebbs and flows. Severe trials are ordained 
for useful purification, and it requires great 
advancement in the Christian life, calmly 
and gratefully to contemplate the footsteps 
of the Divine Providence, through the 
medium of intense sufferings: the mind, 
oppressed by the tortured frame, will often 
shrink back, will strive to be composed, 
and will own its inability; it must wait for 
its cheering views and comforts, till Prov- 
idence has passed by, and reveals a milder 
splendor than that which, in its approach, 
if seen, would have dazzled and confound- 
ed. At such times, we should take shel- 
ter in the rock of faith, and be content, 
with Moses, that the hand of Omnipotence 



132 DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 

should overshadow us till His glory is gone 
by; a few scattered rays, while it retires, 
is all that feeble mortals can bear: the slight- 
est revelation then, of what Providence 
has done for us, is sufficient to overwhelm 
the reflecting mind with gratitude and as- 
tonishment. Should our sufferings, at any 
time, prove extreme, and such as human 
nature recoils at, when apparently forsak- 
en, our Lord's example should prove our 
never-ceasing admonition, " Father, not 
my will, but thine be done." 



CONCERNING THE 



DELIGHTS AND PROGRESS 
OF RELIGION. 



The first abode of religion is in the 
memory, the second is in the understand- 
ing, and the last is in the heart; its last re- 
sidence is comparatively with few. By 
prudent and religious parents, the sub- 
ject is gradually introduced to the infant 
mind, in those pleasing and interesting, as 
well as instructive narratives, with which 
the Scriptures, in their literal sense, abound; 
the stories of Joseph and his brethren, 
David and Goliah, &c, are calculated, not 
only to inspire a relish for sacred subjects 
arrayed in interesting occurrences, but also 
to lay the foundation of veneration of, and 
trust in, the Supreme Being, and also of 
benevolence and forgiving charity. In 
maturer years, if these early impressions 
11* 



134 DELIGHTS AND PROGRESS 

are not superseded by too much concern 
about vain and trifling worldly things, the 
understanding will revert to them, and will 
take up the deeper truths that are convey- 
ed in the sacred pages, comparing the les- 
sons of early instruction with ideas formed 
in a more free, as well as advanced state 
of the understanding; the precepts of the 
Divine Word are received as an unerring 
rule, counteracting numberless propensities 
that oppose them, and so soon as they are 
firmly believed to be indispensable both for 
our present and future felicity, an internal 
struggle and warfare is carried on between 
the false delights of erring reason and pas- 
sion, and the calm and sober delights of 
rectified reason and subordinate inclination. 
While this contention remains, many bitter 
days are experienced of privations, of the 
subjugation of acquired habits, and of hurt- 
ful as well as imaginary pursuits. Internal 
peace cannot take place till our spiritual 
foes are subdued, and till experience has 
realized those satisfactions, towards the at- 



OF RELIGION. 135 

tainment of which, the understanding has 
submitted itself to divine teaching. When 
the will acquiesces with the dictates of the 
holy commandments, as the rule of life, 
and both the will and understanding har- 
moniously conspire to form new habits of 
thinking as well as acting, the delights of 
religion begin to shed their mild and heav- 
enly influence on the heart; instead of re- 
venge, hatred, and malice, the delights of 
a forgiving spirit are experienced; instead 
of the restless aims of ambition, gratitude 
and contentment give a relish to moderate 
possessions; the lapse of time becomes a 
constant delight in a nearer approach to an 
immortal existence; and as the prospects 
are eternal, so are the possessions during 
even this transitory life, forming the begin- 
ning links in the chain of our future exist- 
ence; for they do not consist of wealth, or 
of an abundance in worldly things, which, 
if obtained, are principally regarded for 
their use; but they consist of unperishable 
satisfactions found in the treasures of heav- 



136 PROGRESS OF RELIGION. 

enly wisdom, unfolded in the sacred Word, 
in acts of benevolence, in well founded 
hopes, in calm dependence on Divine 
Providence, in sweet social intercourse, 
in heavenly communications, in retired 
meditation, in prayer, in worship that nev- 
er ceases in the truly devout mind, and in 
activities that charity constantly excites, 
to promote the happiness of others. The 
purposes and actions of wicked men are 
patiently borne with, and prudently oppos- 
ed to protect the cause of goodness. The 
delights of religion may be interrupted, but 
cannot be destroyed; being sown on im- 
mortal ground, they will survive the tran- 
sient sufferings and difficulties of time, and 
will flourish, with eternal increase, in 
heaven. 



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